THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS 

FROM  THE  CROSS 

* 

A Course  of 

SEVEN  LENTEN  SERMONS 


by 

Rev.  H.  G.  HUGHES 

■ .*  - • 


JOSEPH  F.  WAGNER,  Inc. 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS 
FROM  THE  CROSS 


A COURSE  OF 

SEVEN  LENTEN  SERMONS 


BY 

Rev.  H.  G.  HUGHES 


NEW  YORK 
JOSEPH  F.  WAGNER 


jfifijtl  ©bstat 


REMIGiUS  LAFORT,  S.T.D. 

Censor 


jftnjmmatur 

JOHN  CARDINAL  FARLEY 

Archbishop  of  Nenv  York 


New  York,  August  26,  1912 


Copyright,  1913,  bv  Joseph  F.  Wagner,  New  York 


THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS,  CAMBRIDGE,  U-  S.  A. 


CONTENTS 

Page 

The  First  Word i 

The  Second  Word 9 

The  Third  Word 16 

The  Fourth  Word 23 

The  Fifth  Word 29 

The  Sixth  Word 36 

The  Seventh  Word 42 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Boston  Library  Consortium  Member  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/sevenlastwordsfr00hugh_1 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


The  First  Word 


“Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do.” — St.  Luke  xxiii,  34. 


SYNOPSIS. — The  seven  words  spoken  from  the  pulpit  of  the  Cross — the 
most  illustrious  from  which  any  teacher  of  religion  has  ever  spoken. 
They  sum  up  the  lessons  of  the  life  of  Jesus.  In  this  Lenten  Course  we 
are  to  consider  them;  taking  into  view  the  surroundings  in  which  they 
were  spoken , looking  especially  at  our  divine  Lord  who  spoke  them. 

The  scenes  and  circumstances  of  the  First  Word.  The  scenes  of  the 
Passion  up  to  the  Crucifixion.  The_  meeting  with  His  Mother;  the 
desolation  and  abandonment  by  His  friends.  Add  the  accumulation  of 
pains,  and  the  sensitiveness  of  the  sacred  Humanity,  Body  and  Soul; 
endurance  of  past,  present,  future  by  memory,  present  infliction  and 
anticipation.  And  all  this  He  endured  from  the  creatures  whom  He  was 
saving  by  that  very  suffering.  Not  only  their  sins,  but  ours,  the  sins 
of  Catholics.  Hence  our  attitude  in  these  meditations  must  be  that  of 
contrite  and  humble  acknowledgment  of  our  guilt. 

The  scene  of  the  Crucifixion.  Think  of  the  contrast  here  between 
human  wickedness  and  divine  goodness.  The  crowd  watching  and  listen- 
ing for  the  last  acts  and  words  of  the  condemned  man. 

How  does  Jesus  behave ? What  does  He  say?  The  Gospel  words, 
St.  Luke  xxiii,  33,  34.  He  “keep*  saying,  ‘ Father , forgive  them,  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do.’” 

Exhortation  to  the  unforgiving — listen  and  learn.  Jesus  might  justly 
have  punished  them  in  righteous  anger.  He  thinks  not  of  Himself.  He 
pleads  for  their  pardon;  He  makes  excuses  for  them.  Not  only  for  them, 
but  for  us.  We  are  in  the  same  case.  We  have  sinned  against  light  and 
knowledge.  We  must  not  forget  our  responsibility. 

Hence  the  lesson  of  the  First  Word  is  most  needful  for  us.  It  is  the 
lesson  of  forgiveness.  It  could  not  have  been  more  forcibly  urged.  Shall 
we  not  forgive  our  enemies ? Another  motive,  viz.,  reparation.  It  is 
difficult  and  humiliating,  but  can  we  refuse  Him?  Personal  appeal  to 
those  present  who  may  be  unforgiving;  consolation  to  the  Heart  of  Jesus. 

Of  all  the  pulpits,  dear  brethren  in  Jesus  Christ,  from  which, 
throughout  the  world’s  history,  a teacher  of  religion  has  ever 
spoken;  whether  from  some  lofty  hill,  or  from  the  rostrum  of  a 
public  meeting-place,  or  in  the  intimate  circle  of  a few  chosen  dis- 
ciples, who  should  themselves  afterwards  teach  to  others  what  they 
had  heard,  never  was  such  a pulpit  as  that  from  which  our  divine 
Lord  and  Master  spoke  His  seven  last  words — the  pulpit  of  the 
Cross.  He  Himself  had  preached  in  the  synagogues,  in  the  fields, 
on  the  mountains,  from  Peter’s  boat,  and  in  the  circle  of  His  chosen 
apostles  and  disciples — but  the  pulpit  of  the  Cross  was  the  most 
illustrious  of  all  from  which  even  He,  whose  words  wherever  spoken 


2 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


were  always  words  of  life  and  light,  had  ever  taught.  For  the 
Cross  itself  was  an  eloquent  sermon  to  the  world;  all  the  circum- 
stances that  surrounded  the  utterance  from  the  Cross  of  those  seven 
words  or  sayings  of  the  divine  Teacher  add  their  force  to  what  He 
said,  and  preach  eloquently  the  lesson,  summed  up  in  these  final 
utterances  of  that  wonderful  life  of  the  humiliation  of  the  Son 
of  God  of  which  the  Cross  was  the  culmination. 

In  this  Lenten  Course  we  are  to  meditate  upon  those  seven  last 
words;  and,  in  doing  so,  for  the  reasons  I have  just  given,  we 
must  take  into  our  view  the  surroundings  under  which  they  were 
spoken,  fixing  an  attentive  and  loving  gaze  upon  the  last  scenes  of 
the  Passion  of  Jesus,  and  especially  upon  Him,  the  Central  Figure 
of  it  all. 

The  unjust  trial  was  over;  the  iniquitous  condemnation  of  the 
Innocent  One — His  innocence  admitted  by  the  chief  judge  himself, 
the  representative  of  that  imperial  power  which  prided  itself  upon 
its  equal  justice  meted  out  to  all — had  been  passed.  The  awful 
punishment  of  the  scourging  had  been  inflicted;  the  Victim  had 
been  loaded  with  the  heavy  Cross  that  was  to  be  the  instrument  of 
His  death;  He  had  slowly,  painfully,  laboriously  dragged  Himself 
along  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  beneath  its  overpowering  weight, 
stumbling  and  falling  again  and  again,  preceded  and  followed  and 
surrounded  by  a jeering  mob  full  of  hatred  for  the  supposed  enemy 
of  their  national  traditions,  or  angry  at  the  failure  of  the  Prophet’s 
promises,  as  they  thought,  of  a restoration  of  the  temporal  glory 
of  their  country ; some  of  them  led  by  that  morbid  curiosity,  so  dis- 
honorable to  humanity,  which  urges  men  and  women  to  gloat  over 
scenes  of  violence  and  cruelty  and  death.  There,  too,  vrere  the 
priests,  who  had  compassed,  as  they  imagined,  the  fall  of  Him  who 
had  invaded  their  privileges;  Pharisees,  whose  hypocrisy  He  had 
exposed ; Sadducees,  whose  scepticism  and  unbelief  He  had  reproved  ; 
Scribes,  whose  pride  and  formalism  He  had  scourged;  the  Roman 
soldiery,  brutal,  unfeeling,  despising  the  angry  feelings  of  the 
Jewish  crowd,  wondering,  perhaps,  why  they  should  make  so  much 
ado  about  an  obscure  Galilean;  yet  themselves  adding  to  His 
agonies  by  their  hard-hearted  execution  of  their  office ; their  cynical 
enjoyment  of,  or  brutal  indifference  to,  His  sufferings;  their  satis- 
faction of  what  was  to  them,  most  likely,  a welcome  excitement 
somewhat  out  of  the  ordinary — something  to  talk  about  afterward 
and  laugh  over  amongst  themselves.  Such  were  among  the 


THE  FIRST  WORD 


3 


elements  that  added  to  the  agonies  of  the  Way  of  the  Cross.  To 
these  we  must  add  that  meeting — Oh,  how  sad?  How  full  of 
poignant  agony!  Hearts  that  loved  with  a love  unspeakable,  love 
that  was  a keen  sword  of  piercing  pain  stabbing  the  Hearts  of  the 
Son  and  Mother  as  they  met  and  looked  each  upon  the  other’s  ex- 
tremity of  distress.  We  must  add,  too,  the  sorrow  of  desolation,  the 
^abandonment  by  His  apostles,  the  denial  of  Peter,  the  accumulating 
agonies,  bodily  and  mental,  that  grew  and  multiplied  from  the  time 
that  He  gave  Himself  into  the  hands  of  His  enemies  until  the 
moment  when  He  bowed  His  head  and  rendered  up  His  spirit  to 
His  heavenly  Father. 

Ah,  mv  brethren,  one  only  of  the  pains  suffered  by  Jesus,  a single 
shock  of  the  heart-sorrow  that  He  felt — what  agony  it  would  have 
been  to  any  of  us,  could  we  have  felt  it ; how  would  its  bare  remem- 
brance afterward  send  a shuddering  thrill  of  horror  through  our 
being  as  long  as  we  should  live ! How  does  a man  who  has  been  in 
prison  live  over  again  his  dreadful  hours  of  solitude,  of  penal 
labor  and  disgrace,  so  that  all  life  is  clouded  for  him.  For  us 
mercifully  some  dulness  of  perception  comes,  nerves  and  mind  after 
a time  do  not  respond  so  acutely  to  the  stimulus  of  pain  or  grief. 
But  with  Jesus  it  was  not  thus.  At  every  moment  of  His  Passion 
both  mind  and  body  were  most  keenly  alive  to  the  torture  of  each 
moment.  His  human  soul,  raised  up  by  its  union  with  the  Divinity 
to  a vast  capacity  of  feeling  and  of  sustaining  untold  tragedies  of 
anguish ; His  sacred  Body,  likewise  supported  by  the  Divinity  in 
unresting,  unmitigated  sensitiveness  to  every  pang,  bore  to  the  utter- 
most, in  the  fullest  degree,  the  immense  weight  of  sorrow  and  the 
extremest  sharpness  of  physical  pain.  One  upon  the  other  came 
these  pains  of  body,  continuous  was  the  agony  of  soul.  Knowledge 
of  the  past,  vivid  consciousness  of  the  present,  foresight  of  the 
future — all  these  gave  to  the  sufferings  of  God-made  man  a charac- 
ter of  intensity,  of  overwhelming  oppressiveness  and  acuteness  which 
no  other  son  of  man  could  experience.  So,  in  a manner,  our  divine 
Lord  endured  past  and  present  and  future  pains  all  at  once,  by 
memory  and  clear  anticipation,  as  well  as  by  instant  present  inflic- 
tion. And  all  this  He  endured  from  His  own  creatures  whom  He 
had  come  to  save ; from  the  very  ones  for  whose  sake  those  suffer- 
ings were  being  undergone.  It  was  their  sins,  their  blind  folly,  their 
self-destroying  wickedness,  their  obstinacy  in  sin,  the  future  final 
impenitence  and  eternal  ruin  of  many  of  them  that  pierced  His 


4 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


sacred  Heart  to  the  quick.  And,  brethren,  not  only  the  sins,  the 
ingratitude,  the  blindness  of  those  who  actually  condemned  Him, 
who  actually  nailed  Him  to  the  Cross ; who  at  the  time  of  His 
Sacred  Passion  jeered  Him,  scorned  Him,  despised  Him;  but  still 
morq  the  sins  foreseen  of  those  who  afterwards,  knowing  who 
He  was  and  what  He  had  done,  and  why  He  did  it, — knowing  too 
the  dreadful  consequences  of  sin,  yet  should  sin  in  spite  of  their 
knowledge,  should  go  on  in  sin,  believing  in  their  hearts,  yet 
practically  denying  Him  and  rejecting  Him  in  their  lives.  Oh, 
my  brethren,  true  it  is  that  Jesus  grieved  in  His  passion  over 
unbelievers,  over  those  who  should  refuse  the  message  of  salvation 
but  do  you  not  think  that  the  keenest  agony  of  all  must  have  come 
from  His  knowledge  of  the  sins  of  Catholics,  children  of  His 
Church,  special  favorites  of  His  Heart — of  those  who,  sinning 
against  the  light,  sin  more  than  others,  whose  base  ingratitude  is 
worse,  far  worse,  than  the  ignorant  jeers  of  the  Jewish  mob,  or 
the  cold  brutality  of  the  heathen  soldiery,  or  the  cowardly  injustice 
of  Pilate?  So,  my  brethren,  we  must  not  leave  ourselves  out  of  the 
company  of  those  who  made  Jesus  to  suffer  and  nailed  Him  to  His 
Cross.  Only  by  humble,  contrite  acknowledgment  of  our  part  in 
this  tragedy  of  suffering  love  can  we  make  some  reparation  to 
His  Sacred  Heart;  only  in  this  attitude  of  mind,  the  right  attitude 
and  the  just  attitude,  can  we  learn  aright  the  lesson  of  the  seven 
last  words,  preached  from  the  pulpit  of  the  Cross  by  Jesus,  Saviour 
and  Teacher  of  men. 

The  sad  procession  to  Calvary  is  over.  A halt  is  called.  The 
Cross  is  laid  upon  the  ground.  Jesus  is  stripped  of  His  garments. 
All  the  wounds  of  the  scourging  burst  forth  afresh  as  the  clotted 
blood  comes  away  with  the  vestments  that  are  roughly  torn  from 
His  Body.  He  is  laid  upon  the  rough  wood.  Hands  and  feet  are 
stretched  out.  The  great  nails  are  put  in  position  and  crash 
through  bone  and  tendon  with  a sickening  sound  under  the  heavy 
blows  of  the  hammer.  The  Victim  is  fastened  thus  to  the  Altar  of 
Sacrifice.  Brethren,  my  Catholic,  Christian  brethren,  think  of  it! 
What  a contrast  of  human  cruelty  with  divine  compassion ; of  man’s 
depravity  with  the  sinlessness  of  the  Son  of  God ; of  human 
vindictiveness  with  divine  forgiveness ; of  pride  with  humility ; of 
selfishness  with  self-sacrifice.  Every  evil  passion  of  the  human 
heart  is  raging  in  that  crowd  which  surges  about  the  Cross,  every 
perfect  virtue  is  showing  in  the  soul  of  Him  who  is  being  put  tc 


THE  FIRST  WORD 


5 


this  crudest  of  deaths.  The  mocking,  curious  crowd  watch  to 
see  how  the  condemned  criminal — for,  merciful  God  pity  them ! 
that  is  all  He  is  to  them — will  behave.  They  are  all  agog  to  catch 
His  last  words.  The  last  confession  of  a condemned  man,  a 
murderer  or  such  like,  will  always  command  a sale,  and  be  read 
with  unhealthy  interest.  How  does  Jesus  behave:  what  does  He 
say?  These  people  are  used  to  struggle,  to  curses,  to  impotent 
ravings  or  abject  supplications  when  poor  wretches  are  being 
nailed  to  the  cross  to  suffer  their  slaves’  death.  What  of  Jesus, 
the  discredited  Prophet? 

Listen  to  the  Gospel  record.  “And  when  they  were  come  to  the 
place  which  is  called  Calvary,  they  crucified  Him  there,  and  the 
robbers,  one  on  the  right  hand  and  the  other  on  the  left.  And  Jesus 
kept  saying,  ‘Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do” 
(St.  Luke  xxiii,  33-34). 

Listen  to  those  words  that  came  from  Jesus  on  His  Cross: 
while  the  nails  go  in,  while  they  raise  Him  up,  while  they  consum- 
mate their  cruel  injustice  upon  Him,  He  keeps  saying  (for  that, 
my  brethren,  is  the  literal  translation  of  the  Greek  written  by  St. 
Luke) — Jesus  keeps  saying,  “Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know 
not  what  they  do.” 

Hard,  proud  hearts  of  men:  you  who  find  it  so  hard  to  forgive; 
you  whose  pride  is  so  easily  wounded,  so  hardly  healed ; you  whose 
resentment  is  so  quickly  roused,  so  long  before  it  dies  away;  you 
who  cherish  enmities  for  long  years,  who  will  not  be  reconciled, 
who  keep  up  disagreements,  who  will  not  take  the  first  step  to  the 
restoration  of  friendship ; who  will  not  humble  yourselves  in  the 
least  degree,  who  will  not  condescend  to  explain  a misunderstand- 
ing,— listen  and  learn!  If  ever  there  was  one  whose  righteous 
anger  would  have  been  justified,  it  was  Jesus  as  they  nailed  Him 
to  the  Cross.  He  had  done  them  nothing  but  good ; He  had  spent 
Himself  in  their  service;  He  was  suffering  innocently,  and  He 
was  suffering  for  men. 

He  might  have  called  down  fire  from  heaven  to  destroy  His 
murderers ; He  might  have  bidden  to  His  side  a legion  of  angels ; 
He  might,  by  His  own  power,  have  scattered  them  with  a look  or 
a word,  nay,  by  one  act  of  His  will.  Yet,  in  supreme  agony,  He 
suffers  meekly;  under  crying  injustice  He  has  no  resentment. 
With  all  the  weight  of  His  physical  and  mental  torture  He  thinks 
not  of  Himself,  meekly,  pleadingly  He  says,  “Father,  forgive  them. 


6 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


for  they  know  not  what  they  do.”  He  intercedes ; He  makes  excuses  ; 
He  asks  that  they  may  not  be  punished ; He  would  fain  save  them 
from  the  consequences  of  their  sin.  Do  I say  He  forgives  them, 
intercede  for  them , makes  excuses  for  them, — not  only  is  it  for  them, 
but  for  us,  for  you  and  me,  my  brother  and  sister.  For  we,  by  our 
many  sins,  are  in  the  same  case  as  the  murderers  of  Jesus  and  those 
who  stood  by  and  approved.  The  guilt  of  that  death  is  upon  our 
heads ; we  are  blood-guilty  of  the  Blood  of  Christ.  Oh,  what  shall 
we  do?  Where  shall  we  hide  our  heads  for  very  shame?  For  when 
we  sinned,  we  knew  what  we  were  doing.  The  words  of  Jesus 
cannot  be  applied  to  us  so  fully  as  to  those  who  actually  nailed 
Him  to  the  Cross.  They  were  very  ignorant.  It  is  true  that  when 
we  sin  we  are  for  the  moment  blinded,  by  passion  or  covetousness, 
or  pride,  or  lust — but  there  is  less  excuse  for  us  than  there  was  for 
them.  Yet  our  dear  Lord  says  of  us,  “Father,  forgive  them,  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do.”  He  knows  the  power  of  temptation  to 
obscure  our  minds,  of  passion  to  blind  us.  Yet  we  can  counteract 
this  power  of  blinding  if  we  will.  We  have  the  light  of  faith,  the 
aid  of  grace;  we  need  not  be  blind;  our  sin  is  imputable  to  us;  it 
is  our  own  fault.  We  know  that  by  it  we  crucify  the  Lord  of  Life, 
we  know  the  consequences  of  our  action.  Yet  He  makes  excuse 
and  pleads  for  us ; He  makes  all  the  excuse  He  can ! He  takes  into 
account  to  the  full  all  our  natural  human  weakness.  But  we 
must  not  forget  our  responsibility,  for  responsibility,  grave  re- 
sponsibility we  have,  when,  knowing  what  we  know,  believing  what 
we  believe,  we  yet  sin  against  our  God,  against  Jesus  our  dear 
Saviour,  of  whose  sufferings  and  bitter  death  our  sins  are  the  true 
cause. 

And,  as  this  is  so,  since  by  our  sins  we  have  crucified  the  Lord 
of  Life,  the  great  lesson  that  He  teaches  in  this  first  word  from  the 
Cross  is  surely  most  needful  for  us.  It  is  the  lesson  of  forgiveness ; 
or,  full  and  free  forgiveness  of  enemies,  of  all  who  have  done  us 
wrong.  It  would  not  have  been  possible  for  this  lesson  to  be  more 
strongly,  more  persuasively  urged  than  it  is  by  our  divine  Lord 
speaking  under  those  circumstances,  in  those  surroundings  which 
I have  already  recalled  to  your  minds.  Innocent,  He  forgives  His 
unjust  accusers ; all  harmless,  nay,  their  greatest  benefactor,  He 
pleads  for  those  who  are  overwhelming  Him  with  injuries,  giving 
them  true  life,  He  forgives  them  His  death 

By  word  and  example  He  teaches  us  to  forgive : by  words  whose 


THE  FIRST  WORD 


7 


force,  spoken  when  they  were  spoken,  must  surely  be  irresistible, 
by  an  example  of  forgiveness  without  example  in  the  world’s 
history.  Saints  have  imitated  that  example.  Oh,  that  we  too  may 
imitate  it.  Since  He  has  thus  forgiven  us — for,  remember  always, 
it  was  for  us  too  that  He  prayed — since  He  has  thus  forgiven  us 
who  owe  Him  ten  thousand  talents,  shall  we  not  forgive  our  fellow- 
servant  who  owes  us  perhaps  less  than  a hundred  pence?  There 
is  another  motive.  Since  we  by  sin  have  so  grievously  injured  Him, 
our  sovereign  Lord  and  God,  do  we  not  owe  Him  reparation. 
He  has  told  us  what  reparation  we  can  make;  what  reparation  is 
most  pleasing  to  Him.  And  in  this,  again,  He  shows  forth  His 
divine  unselfishness  and  charity.  “If  you  would  please  Me,”  He 
says,  “do  good  to  others.”  “Inasmuch  as  you  do  it  to  the  least  of 
these,  my  brethren,  you  do  it  unto  Me.”  And  especially  to  show 
us  how  pleasing  to  Him  is  forgiveness,  “Judge  not”  He  tells  us, 
“and  you  shall  not  be  judged.”  “Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they 
shall  obtain  mercy.”  “If  you  will  forgive  men  their  offenses, 
your  heavenly  Father  will  forgive  you  also  your  offenses.”  “Love 
your  enemies,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you.  Bless  those  that 
curse  you,  and  pray  for  those  that  calumniate  you.”  Such  is  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  summed  up  in  His  own  sublime  example,  when 
He  cried  out  again  and  again,  “Father,  forgive  them,  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do.” 

This  is  difficult,  indeed,  for  human  nature;  hard  for  our  pride, 
humiliating  to  our  self-esteem.  But  who  can  resist  the  word  and 
the  example  of  Jesus  that  we  have  thought  upon  to-day?  Who, 
with  that  before  his  eyes,  can  harden  his  heart,  and  say,  “No,  my 
Lord  and  Master,  notwithstanding  Thy  own  blessed  example,  I 
cannot  and  will  not  bring  myself  to  foster  it.  I will  not  forgive ; 
I will  not  lay  aside  my  anger  and  resentment.  I was  unjustly 
treated,  that  person  had  no  right  to  behave  in  such  a wav,  I did 
not  deserve  it ; it  is  too  much ; I cannot  be  reconciled,  I will  not 
make  friends.  I know  that  Thy  injuries,  Thy  sufferings,  the  in- 
justice Thou  didst  endure  were  far  greater  than  anything  that  has 
fallen  to  my  lot ; I know,  too,  that  I,  myself,  inflicted  these  things 
upon  Thee — and  Thou  art  ready  and  willing  to  forgive  me — but 
I will  not  forgive;  it  is  too  difficult.” 

Brethren,  there  may  be  many  among  you  who  have  something 
to  forgive  which  you  have  not  forgiven,  someone  to  be  reconciled 
with  whom  still  you  are  holding  at  a distance.  If  that  is  so,  you 


8 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


are  really  saying  those  things  to  Jesus;  you  are  refusing  Him  what 
He  asks,  in  spite  of  all  He  has  done  for  you,  in  spite  of  the  example 
we  have  been  looking  upon  together.  Will  you  refuse  Him  still? 
Will  you  go  on  in  pride  ?nd  hardness  of  heart?  Will  you  go  on 
saying  from  day  to  day,  “forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive 
them  that  trespass  against  us”?  If  you  do  act  thus,  can  you  hope 
that  the  loving  prayer  of  Jesus,  “Father,  forgive  them,  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do”  will  avail  for  you.  Oh,  my  brethren,  be 
not  so  foolish ; be  not  so  hard-hearted ; be  not  so  ungrateful  to 
that  dear  Saviour  who  suffered  for  you,  and  in  the  midst  of 
His  sufferings  uttered  that  prayer  for  you.  What  would  the 
cold  indifference  of  those  Roman  soldiers  be  compared  with  your 
cold  hard-hearted  indifference  to  Jesus  if  you  refuse  to  others  the 
forgiveness  which  Jesus  asks  you  to  give  them? 

Let  it  not  be,  my  brethren.  Give  to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  our  dear 
Lord  the  consolation  of  knowing  that  His  supreme  example  of 
unselfish  forgiveness  has  not  been  in  vain  for  you,  but  that  now, 
without  delay,  in  grateful  acknowledgment  of  His  goodness  to 
you,  you  will  forgive,  even  as  you  have  been  forgiven,  unhesitat- 
ingly, freely,  and  without  reserve. 


THE  SECOND  WORD 


9 


The  Second  Word 

“Amen,  I say  to  thee,  this  day  thou  shalt  be  with  Me  in  Paradise.” — St. 
Luke  xxiii,  43. 


SYNOPSIS. —Christ  hanging  on  the  Cross:  the  Cross  henceforth  to  be  the 
glory  of  Christians.  First  visible  fruit  of  the  Crucifixion  was  the  cotv- 
version  and  salvation  of  a sinner.  Contemplate  the  scene.  Jesus  and  the 
two  thieves.  The  parting  of  the  garments:  the  behavior  of  the  soldiers , 
the  crowd,  the  priests  and  scribes.  Their  blasphemies,  taunts  and  jeers. 
One  of  the  robbers  joins  with  them  in  reviling  Jesus.  What  a scene  of 
suffering  and  cruelty.  We  should  have  pitied  Jesus  had  He  been  only  an 
ordinary  man  unjustly  punished.  What  when  it  is  God-made-Man  who 
suffers,  and  suffers  for  us?  One  was  there  upon  whom  it  dawned  that 
Jesus  was  more  than  an  ordinary  man.  Who  was  it?  One  of  the  two 
condemned  criminals.  His  speech  to  his  fellow  robber ; what  it  involved 
for  him;  the  process  in  his  mind;  his  courage  in  speaking  out  what  he 
felt.  His  new-found  virtues — faith,  hope  and  charity;  circumstances  all 
against  the  exercise  of  these  three  virtues.  His  confession  of  faith: 
“Lord,  remember  me  when  thou  shaft  come  into  thy  kingdom.”  His  re- 
ward— the  second  word  from  the  Cross. 

The  lesson  for  us:  no  sinner  hopeless;  holiness  to  be  gained  by  all. 
Exhortation  to  sinners  to  turn  to  Jesus.  Exhortation  to  all  to  realize: 
that  the  reward  of  the  good  thief  is  open  to  us.  If  we  turn  to  Him,  then 
some  day  it  will  be  said  to  us:  “Amen,  I say  to  thee,  this  day  thou  shalt 
be  with  Me  in  Paradise.” 

Our  divine  Saviour  has  been  nailed  to  the  Cross;  the  Cross 
itself  has  been  lifted  up  and  set  firmly  in  its  place,  a sign  of 
salvation  henceforth  to  all  the  world;  from  that  moment,  instead 
of  being  an  object  of  horror,  the  mark,  like  the  gallows,  of  indelible 
disgrace,  the  Cross  of  Jesus  is  to  be  the  most  glorious  of  all 
standards,  the  sign  of  all  that  is  most  lovely  and  desirable,  the 
emblem  of  an  eternal  hope,  the  strength  of  martyrs,  the  stimulus 
of  courage  in  suffering,  the  effective  motive  of  patience,  giving 
fortitude  in  life  and  sure  confidence  in  death,  perseverance  to 
saints  and  repentance  to  sinners. 

Repentance  to  sinners!  Ah,  my  dear  brethren  in  Christ,  what  a 
consolation  it  is  to  us  to  know  that  the  very  first  visible  fruit  of 
the  raising  up  of  Jesus  on  the  Cross  was  the  conversion  and  salva- 
tion of  a sinner ! We  will  contemplate  now  together  this  great 
wonder  of  divine  compassion  and  mercy,  this  ever-memorable 
proof  of  the  power  of  divine  grace  and  of  the  love  of  Jesus  for 
men  over  sinful  human  hearts.  Thank  God,  though  so  wonderful, 
the  conversion  that  we  shall  meditate  upon  to-day  does  not  stand 


IO 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


alone;  it  is  typical — the  first  of  a series  that  shall  never  end  whilst 
the  world  lasts;  a service  of  mighty  works  of  grace  done  by  Jesus 
and  by  the  power  of  His  holy  Cross  in  the  souls  of  men,  in  that 
invisible  world  of  spiritual  happenings — the  minds  and  hearts  and 
wills  of  human  beings. 

Jesus  hangs  there.  Beside  Him  are  two  robbers,  crucified  with 
Him;  condemned,  doubtless,  for  deeds  of  violence  and  brigandage. 
To  watch  the  condemned  men  four  soldiers  of  the  Roman  guard 
are  left,  according  to  the  customary  regulations.  The  Roman  law 
allowed  the  soldiers  employed  in  superintending  executions  such 
spoils  as  they  could  secure  from  the  persons  of  the  condemned. 
These  men,  therefore,  proceeded  to  divide  amongst  them  our 
blessed  Lord’s  garments  of  which  He  had  been  stripped, — His 
tunic  and  mantle.  The  mantle,  being  made  in  several  pieces,  was 
easily  divided;  not  so  the  tunic.  This  was  woven  in  one  piece, 
and  rather  than  spoil  the  material  of  which  it  was  made,  by  rending 
it,  the  soldiers  cast  lots  for  its  possession.  Thus  was  fulfilled, 
in  the  most  exact  way,  the  ancient  prophecy  of  the  Psalmist, 
'‘They  parted  my  garments  among  them,  and  upon  my  vesture 
they  cast  lots”  (Ps.  xxi,  19). 

In  the  meantime,  the  crowd  waited  to  gaze  curiously  upon  the 
dying  agonies  of  Jesus  and  the  two  malefactors.  Many  were  there 
from  mere  curiosity.  But  it  was  the  hour  of  seeming  triumph 
for  the  enemies  of  the  Christ;  and  these,  too,  crowded  about  the 
Cross,  and  loaded  their  most  innocent  victim  with  all  kinds  of  cruel 
taunts,  vile  jeers  and  abuse.  “They  that  passed  by,”  St.  Mark 
tells  us  (xv,  29  seq.),  “blasphemed  Him,  wagging  their  heads,  and 
saying:  “Ah  thou  that  destroyest  (as  thou  didst  boast)  the 
temple  of  God  and  in  three  days  buildest  it  up  again,  save  thyself, 
coming  down  from  the  cross.’  ” And  the  chief  priests  and  scribes, 
collected  together  in  delighted  triumph  over  their  long  put-off 
success,  gloat  over  their  now  defeated  opponent,  saying  to  one 
another,  “He  saved  others,  Himself  He  cannot  save”;  and,  with 
bitter  scorn  and  irony  “Let  the  Christ,  the  King  of  Israel,  come 
down  now  from  the  cross  that  we  may  see  and  believe”  (xv,  31-32). 
A pretty  Christ ! Indeed,  a famous  king  of  Israel  He  makes,  hang- 
ing there  with  His  fit  associates — for  brethren,  nothing  less  than 
this  was  the  awful  blasphemy  which  scarcely  we  dare  transcribe 
thus  in  its  naked  hideous  meaning,  that  they  conceived  in  their 
wicked  hearts  and  uttered  with  their  lips.  Worse  than  this,  they 


THE  SECOND  WORD 


ii 


even  dare  to  challenge  God  Himself  to  come  to  the  deliverance  of 
Jesus,  blaspheming  the  love  of  the  Father  for  His  only-begotten 
Son : “He  put  His  trust  in  God ; if  God  loves  Him,  let  Him  deliver 
Him,  for  He  said  ‘I  am  the  Son  of  God’  ” — such,  dear  brethren,  is 
the  literal  translation  of  the  words  of  St.  Matthew  who  records 
this  terrible  blasphemy.  At  first  the  general  mass  of  curious 
sight-seers  standing  about  seems  to  have  been  neutral  or  indiffer- 
ent, but  the  mad  exulting  derision  of  the  priests  and  scribes  infected 
them  also,  and  they  began  to  join  in  the  jeers  and  taunts  that  these 
were  casting  at  our  blessed  Lord.  One  of  the  soldiers  mockingly 
holds  up  towards  the  divine  Sufferer  a cup  of  wine  mixed  with 
water  with  which  the  guards  were  regaling  themselves,  crying  out 
at  the  same  time:  “If  thou  be  the  King  of  the  Jews,  save  thyself” 
(St.  Luke  xxiii,  37).  And  the  crowds  begin  to  call  out  also,  as 
we  have  seen  St.  Mark  tells  us,  “come  down  from  the  cross! 
save  thyself !”  And  even  one  of  the  robbers,  despite  his  own  misery 
and  pain,  is  infected  with  the  general  feeling  and  blasphemes  Him, 
saying:  “If  thou  be  the  Christ,  save  thyself  and  us”  (St.  Luke 
xxiii,  39). 

My  brethren,  what  a scene  is  here  of  undeserved  suffering,  of 
human  cruelty,  of  despicable  triumph  over  a seeming  fallen  foe! 
Often  the  worst  of  men  will  refrain  from  taunting  a vanquished 
and  discomfited  enemy.  It  is  not  so  with  the  enemies  of  Jesus. 
He  shall  taste  his  punishment  to  the  very  dregs;  no  bitterness  of 
stinging  reproach  shall  be  spared  Him;  no  ambition  of  His  (as 
they  conceive  it)  that  has  broken  down,  no  rash  boast  (as  they 
count  it)  that  He  has  ever  uttered,  no  former  deed  of  power  and 
mercy  that  He  has  done — all  to  enhance  His  influence,  as  they 
would  have  it,  all  to  make  Himself  a name,  all  to  further  His  pre- 
sumptuous projects  as  a religious  Teacher,  as  a Ruler,  as  the  pre- 
tended Deliverer  of  His  nation — not  one  of  these  things,  but, 
with  deliberately  cruel  intent  and  malice  aforethought,  shall  he 
cast  up  at  Him  now  that  He  is  apparently  at  their  mercy.  We 
should  have  pitied  Him,  dear  brethren,  had  He  been  but  an  ordinary 
man,  the  history  of  whose  goodness  and  undeserved  sufferings  had 
come  down  to  us;  we  should  have  reflected  upon  the  extremities 
of  cruelty  to  which  envy  and  injured  pride  and  lust  of  power,  and 
the  triumphant  opposition  of  vested  interests  to  any  reform  that 
touches  them,  could  degrade  men  in  the  persons  of  those  priests  and 
scribes.  But  when  it  is  God-made-Man,  the  All-Perfect,  the 


12 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


Sinless,  the  Innocent,  when  it  is  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus,  Lover 
and  Saviour  of  men  who  for  men , for  us,  is  suffering  these  things 
at  the  hands  of  His  own  creatures — then,  oh  my  brethren — what 
life  is  long  enough  to  fathom  the  wonder  of  these  things,  the  suffer- 
ings of  our  God  in  human  flesh,  the  anguish  of  that  supremely 
tender  Heart,  the  piercing  agony  of  the  strokes  which  the  blind 
ingratitude  of  those  He  had  benefited  and  was  still  benefiting  dealt 
upon  His  most  sensitive  human  soul? 

Brethren,  there  was  one  there  upon  whom  it  dawned,  as  he 
looked  and  listened,  that  this  was  more  than  a Man  who  was 
suffering  thus.  Who  was  it  ? One  of  the  priests  who  was  pious  and 
more  compassionate  than  the  rest?  One  of  the  scribes,  who,  per- 
chance, began  to  see  in  the  events  that  passed  before  him  the 
evident  fulfilment  of  prophecies  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures 
that  were  his  proper  study?  One  of  the  crowd  gathered  there, 
enlightened  by  some  secret  sympathy  and  gifted  with  more  than 
common  insight  by  reason  of  a just  and  tender  heart?  None  of 
these.  God  the  Son  is  recognized,  is  saluted,  is  adored  by  one 
brought  lower  than  the  lowest  riffraff  that  has  gathered  there  to 
gloat  upon  dying  agonies  and  bleeding  flesh  and  poor  rent  human 
frames : He  is  recognized  by  one  of  the  poor  wretches  who  have 
been  crucified  with  Him ; and  for  all  time  the  dying  thief  is  to  be  a 
picture,  too  tender,  too  full  of  the  pathos  of  love  and  suffering  and 
repentance  ever  to  be  adequately  imaged  in  thought  or  words  of 
man.  For  it  is  no  mere  human  emotion  that  has  seized  him,  but 
the  transforming  power  and  efficacy  of  God’s  holy  grace;  grace 
won  by  the  divine  Sufferer  who  hangs  besides  him,  grace  red  with 
the  Blood  that  flows  from  the  Cross  of  Jesus  and  bedews  not  alone 
the  hard  ground  beneath,  but  the  soul  of  that  poor  sinful  man. 

His  companion  in  misery  had  begun,  as  we  have  seen,  to  revile 
our  blessed  Lord  with  the  others:  “If  thou  be  Christ,  save  thyself 
and  us” — such  was  the  bitter  taunt  that  fell  from  his  dying  lips. 
“But  the  other,  answering,  rebuked  him,  saying:  Neither  dost 
thou  fear  God,  seeing  thou  art  under  the  same  condemnation? 
And  we  indeed,  justly,  for  we  receive  the  due  reward  of  our  deeds : 
but  this  man  hath  done  no  evil”  (St.  Luke  xxiii,  40-41). 

We  will  pause  a little  over  these  words,  significative  of  a great 
change  that  had  taken  place  in  the  soul  of  Dismas,  the  good  thief. 
Grace  had  touched  his  soul.  He  had  been  thinking,  as  he  hung 
there.  The  first  word  of  Jesus,  “Father,  forgive  them,  for  they 


THE  SECOND  WORD 


13 


know  not  what  they  do,”  had  sunk  into  his  heart;  he  had  watched 
Jesus,  and  had  been  struck  by  the  meekness  and  patience  and  for- 
givingness of  the  divine  Sufferer.  The  thought  came  back  to  him 
of  the  God  whom  he  had  forsaken,  of  whom  he  had  learned  in  child- 
hood, whom  he  had  been  taught  to  serve.  He  repented:  he  was 
ready  now  to  bear  witness  to  that  God,  and  to  the  innocence  of 
Him  who  hung  by  his  side.  He  knew  well  that  a perfect  storm  of 
jeers  and  taunts  would  arise  from  those  who  should  hear  him — 
him,  a condemned  thief,  “he  to  set  up  now  as  a just  man,  to  pre- 
sume to  rebuke  his  fellow  criminal!  He  was  as  bad  as  the  other, 
how  could  he  dare  to  rebuke  him?  And  now  he  is  defending  the 
false  Nazarene;  much  good  may  that  do  him!”  But  Dismas  is 
not  deterred;  he  has  found  a new  kind  of  courage,  noi  the 
courage  of  a brigand,  but  the  courage  of  a Christian,  the  courage 
that  in  the  martyrs  was  to  astonish  the  world.  So,  courageously 
he  speaks : “Do  you  not  fear  God,  my  brother,  seeing  that  you  are 
under  the  same  sentence?  Yet  for  us,  this  is  what  we  deserve, 
it  is  the  just  reward  of  our  deeds;  but  this  man  here  hath  done 
nothing  that  is  even  unseemly.”  This  poor  criminal  was  vouchsafed 
a wonderful  insight  into  the  character  of  Jesus;  for  the  words  that 
are  translated  in  our  version,  “this  man  has  done  no  evil,”  mean 
in  the  Greek,  not  merely  this  men  hath  done  no  evil,  but  this  man 
hath  done  nothing  out  of  place  ” nothing  in  any  way  worthy  even 
of  slight  blame.  What  a testimony,  dear  brethren,  to  the  influence 
of  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus ; what  a testimony  is  the  whole  occurrence 
to  the  power  of  His  grace  and  the  efficacy  of  His  Sacred  Passion? 
But  there  is  more:  the  dying  thief  has  acquired  a new  virtue — 
it  is  faith.  He  believes  in  Jesus,  he  accepts  His  Messiahship,  he 
acknowledges  Him  as  a King!  How  marvelous  was  the  faith  that 
made  him  do  this  under  such  circumstances!  Did  anyone  ever 
look  less  like  a King,  a Saviour,  a Messias  sent  by  God,  than  this 
poor  discredited  Prophet  from  Nazareth  whose  schemes  of  reform 
and  of  deliverance  have  to  all  appearances  ended  in  this  complete 
failure?  But  Dismas  believes  in  Jesus;  and  not  only  that,  he  hopes 
in  Jesus.  What  a time  for  hope ! Did  anything  look  more  hopeless 
than  the  position  in  which  both  he  and  Jesus  found  themselves? 
And  his  whole  bearing  shows  that  he  has  begun  also  to  love  Jesus : 
he  loves  Him  enough  to  bear  for  His  sake  all  the  taunts  and  jeers 
that  are  levelled  at  him  for  his  brave  witness  to  what  he  knows 
now  is  the  truth — -to  the  sinlessness,  the  divine  mission,  the  power. 


14 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


the  kingship  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  And,  dying  as  he  is,  he  turns 
to  the  Christ  dying  also  beside  him,  and  he  speaks  those  wonderful 
words,  “Lord,  remember  me  when  thou  shalt  come  into  thy  king- 
dom” (St.  Luke  xxiii,  42). 

This  confession  of  faith  drew  from  our  divine  Lord  the  Second 
Word  from  the  Cross.  “Jesus  said  to  him:  Amen  I say  to  thee, 
this  day  thou  shalt  be  with  Me  in  Paradise”  (v.  43).  Oh,  glorious 
words,  sealing  at  once  his  pardon  and  his  perseverance!  How 
many  of  God’s  saints  even  have  been  thus  assured  of  their  salva- 
tion? Oh,  reward  unspeakably  great!  He  asks  that  some  day  he 
may  find  a place  in  the  kingdom  of  Jesus;  Jesus  promises  him 
heaven  that  very  day  itself.  Before  the  sun  shall  have  set  upon  that 
Day  of  Days,  Dismas  will  be  with  Him  in  Heaven,  pardoned, 
ransomed,  clothed  in  the  bright  whiteness  of  the  vesture  of  eternal 
glory.  Such  is  the  generosity  of  God  in  rewarding;  such  is  the 
marvelous  power  of  true  repentance.  What  a change : from 
wickedness  to  sanctity,  from  disgrace  to  unutterable  glory,  from 
misery  to  eternal  peace,  from  shame  and  reproach  to  everlasting 
praise  and  reward ! And  it  is  all  the  work  of  grace  and  of  repen- 
tance; of  the  first  grace  used  and  co-operated  with,  of  repentance 
brought  about  by  that  first  grace  and  winning  other  graces,  till  in 
so  brief  a time  the  condemned  criminal  is  changed  into  a saint 
of  God. 

Brethren,  who  dare  say  now  of  any  sinner  that  there  is  no  hope  for 
him?  Who  dare  say  now  that  holiness  and  perfection  are 
out  of  reach  or  impossible?  This  Second  Word  of  Jesus  from  the 
Cross  forbids  such  thoughts  to  us.  Only  trust  Him,  only  set  about 
to  do  something  for  Him,  only  use  the  graces  He  gives  you  now, 
and  you  may  hope  for  anything:  for  pardon,  for  more  and  more 
grace,  for  holiness,  for  eternal  glory.  Say  not  that  it  is  too  late 
for  you  to  begin  to  think  of  holiness.  It  was  not  too  late,  even  at 
that  eleventh  hour,  for  Jesus  to  save  and  to  sanctify  the  dying 
thief.  God’s  arm  is  not  shortened,  the  streams  of  His  grace  are 
not  dried  up.  He  will  do  the  same  for  you  as  He  did  for  Dismas 
if  you,  too,  will  turn  with  all  your  hearts  and  souls  to  Him.  Rouse  up 
then  your  faith  and  hope  and  love.  Bear  witness  bravely  by  your 
fearless  profession  of  our  holy  religion  to  the  faith  you  have  in 
Jesus  whose  religion  it  is.  And  you  poor  sinners,  if  any  there  be 
here,  loved  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  do  not  that  Sacred  Heart  the 
injustice  of  despairing  of  His  mercy,  or  of  being  discouraged. 


THE  SECOND  WORD 


15 


He  will  forgive  you,  He  will  save  you.  Come  to  Him!  He  will 
ask  you  to  do  something  for  Him,  to  make  necessary  effort — 
but  see  what  the  dying  thief  was  willing  to  do;  see  what  was  his 
reward  exceeding  great.  Brethren,  all  of  you,  try  to  realize  that 
the  same  heaven  where  Dismas  is  with  Jesus  is  still  offered  to  you, 
is  still  open  to  you.  Jesus  has  won  it  for  you;  it  is  your  inheri- 
tance and  your  right.  He  will  give  you  all  the  grace  you  need  to 
get  there.  Come  to  Him  then,  with  faith  and  hope  and  love. 
Faith  is  easier  for  you  than  it  was  for  the  good  thief:  you  are 
not  called  upon  to  hope  even  against  hope  as  he  did:  and  you 
know  more  of  Jesus,  of  His  goodness,  His  mercy  and  His  power 
than  Dismas  did  when  he  met  his  Lord  on  Calvary.  Will  you 
not  love  that  dear  Saviour  who  died  for  you?  Come  to  Him 
with  true  repentance  in  your  hearts,  and  say  to  Him,  every  day, 
“Lord,  remember  me,”  and  one  day,  when  you  are  about  to  meet 
Him,  cleansed  by  His  Blood,  absolved  from  your  sins,  purified  by 
repentance,  strengthened  for  your  last  journey  by  the  Holy  Viati- 
cum of  His  Body  and  Blood,  anointed  with  the  Holy  Oil,  your 
temporal  punishment  cancelled  by  holy  indulgences  and  by  your 
patient  suffering  upon  your  sick-bed,  which  will  be  your  cross, 
you,  too,  if  you  will  and  if  you  strive  now,  even  before  the 
sun  has  set  upon  your  last  earthly  day,  may  have  heard  from  the 
lips  of  Jesus  those  most  gracious  words,  “Amen,  I say  unto  thee, 
this  day  thou  shalt  be  with  Me  in  Paradise/* 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


16 


The  Third  Word 


“When  Jesus,  therefore,  had  seen  His  mother  and  the  disciple  standing 
whom  He  loved,  He  saith  to  His  mother:  ‘Woman,  behold  thy  son!’  After 
that  He  said  to  the  disciple:  ‘Behold  thy  mother!’ ” — St.  John  xix,  26,  27. 


SYNOPSIS. — The  third  word  from  the  Cross.  Short  recapitulation  of  last 
Sunday’s  discourse.  The  darkness.  Mary  and  the  others  approach  the 
Cross.  The  mutual  sufferings  of  Jesus  and  Mary;  Mary  queen  and  chief 
of  martyrs.  Jesus  speaks  the  third  word.  The  tradition  of  the  Church  as 
to  the  meaning  of  this  third  word.  Its  wider  application.  “ Mary  our 
Mother .”  This  a fundamental  truth  of  the  Christian  religion.  Mary’s 
motherhood  of  us  based  on  and  following  from  her  motherhood  of  Jesus 
Jesus  our  brother.  Our  higher  sonship  of  God  through  Him;  the  sonship 
of  adoption.  This  involves  a real  new  relationship  to  God — the  communi- 
cation of  a divine  life  from  God  to  us.  Jesus  is  our  life,  and  this  life 
comes  to  us  through  Mary  who  cooperates  with  God  in  bringing  the  new 
life  into  the  world.  Hence,  she  truly  brings  us  forth  to  God  spiritually; 
is  our  spiritual  mother.  Can  it  be  that  she  has  not  a mother’s  love  for  us? 
No.  She  cooperated  in  our  redemption:  she  does  so  still  by  her  interces- 
sion. Love  her , venerate  her , take  her  to  your  hearts  as  St.  John  “ took 
her  into  his  own.*’ 

We  are  to  meditate  to-day,  dear  brethren  in  Jesus  Christ,  upon 
the  Third  Word  or  saying  of  our  blessed  Lord  uttered  by  Him  from 
His  Cross.  It  is  a word  for  which  we  should  thank  God  every  day 
of  our  lives;  a word  spoken  by  Jesus,  our  dear  Saviour,  for  us, 
as  well  as  for  those  who  first  heard  it ; a word  which  He  spoke  with 
us  in  rnind. 

It  was  about  the  sixth  hour  of  the  day,  that  is  about  noon, 
probably  a little  before  noon,  that  our  blessed  Saviour  was  raised 
up  on  that  Cross  from  which,  as  He  had  said,  He  was  to  draw  all 
men  unto  Him.  We  contemplated  last  Sunday  the  earlier  events 
of  that  long  agony  of  three  hours  which  ensued  upon  the  cruci- 
fixion. We  listened  to  the  jeers  and  taunts  of  the  priests  and 
scribes;  we  saw  how  they  roused  the  crowd  of  persons  who  stood 
about  in  idle  curiosity  or  indifference,  stirring  up  hostility  to- 
wards the  divine  Sufferer ; how  this  hostility  affected  the 
mind  even  of  one  of  our  divine  Lord’s  fellow-sufferers,  who, 
in  spite  of,  or  rather  in  desperation  at  his  own  pains,  joined  in  the 
torrent  of  abuse  that  was  being  hurled  at  Jesus.  We  witnessed 
in  spirit  the  marvelous  conversion  of  Dismas;  we  heard  his  cry 
of  faith  and  hope  and  love,  and  the  wonderful  word  of  Jesus 
promising  him  a reward  unspeakable,  “This  day  thou  shalt  be  with 


THE  THIRD  WORD 


17 


Me  in  Paradise.”  And  now  an  extraordinary  and  terrifying  event 
takes  place.  From  the  sixth  hour  onward  strange  shadows  began 
to  gather  about  the  earth,  a preternatural  darkness,  rising  up  about 
Calvary  as  if  to  hide  from  the  face  of  day  the  shameful  deed  that 
was  there  being  done,  spreading  over  the  whole  face  of  the  land. 
As  this  darkness  came  on  the  crowd  about  the  Cross  began  to 
thin,  terrified  at  this  unwonted  happening.  Thus  a clear  space  was 
left  around  the  Cross  of  Jesus,  and  a little  company  of  persons 
drew  near  to  Him.  They  were  the  Mother  of  Jesus,  that  blessed 
Virgin  Mother,  now  indeed  the  Queen  of  Martyrs,  suffering  in 
her  pure  and  loving  soul  every  agonizing  pang  that  her  well- 
beloved  Son  was  feeling:  there  was  her  sister,  Mary,  the  wife  of 
Cleophas;  there  was  St.  Mary  Magdalene  and  John,  the  Disciple 
whom  Jesus  loved.  Jesus  looks  down  upon  them.  Unutterable 
anguish  and  suffering  still  awaits  Him  in  those  hours  of  thick 
darkness — a deep  mystery  of  pain  such  as  never  man  suffered 
before  nor  since ; pain  of  body,  anguish  of  soul.  And  not  the  least 
of  His  agonies  is  in  the  knowledge  of  His  own  dear  Mother’s 
unutterable  grief  at  seeing  Him  there  upon  the  Cross.  Now,  indeed, 
the  sword  is  piercing  His  Mother’s  heart ; now,  indeed,  her 
heart  and  the  Heart  of  Jesus,  united  in  suffering,  each  knowing 
and  feeling  the  suffering  of  the  other,  are  a very  ocean  of  sorrow, 
their  mutual  love,  as  it  is  greater  beyond  compare  than  any  that  we 
can  know,  sharpening  inexpressibly  the  anguish  that  they  feel. 
We  do  know  and  we  contemplate  sometimes,  perhaps,  with  terror, 
the  almost  illimitable  capacity  of  the  human  heart  for  suffering. 
What  must  have  been  the  suffering  of  the  Hearts  of  Jesus  and 
Mary  then ! Saints  in  their  meditations  can  go  a little  way  into 
that  mystery  of  anguish : Holy  Church  strives,  in  her  hymns  and 
offices  to  tell  us  somewhat  of  that  deep  and  awful  grief.  Especially 
in  that  beautiful  sequence,  the  Stabat  Mater,  does  she  strive  to 
depict  the  sorrows  of  Mary. 

“Quis  est  homo  qui  non  fleret 
Christi  matrem  si  videret 
In  tanto  supplicio? 

Quis  non  posset  contristari 
Piam  Matrem  contemplari 
Dolentem  cum  Filio?” 

If  even  our  cold  hearts  are  moved  when  we  meditate  upon  the 
sufferings  of  Jesus ; if  even  we  can  compassionate  the  sorrows  of 


*8  THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 

Mary  standing  beneath  the  Cross  of  her  dying  Son,  oh,  what 
must  have  been  the  keen  agony  that  pierced  the  Sacred  Heart  of 
Jesus  as  He  looked  upon  her  enduring  such  pangs  of  grief  as  we 
cannot  imagine;  what  must  have  been  her  grief  who  could  enter 
into,  and  did  willingly  enter  into,  with  entire  sympathy  and  fellow- 
feeling — the  sympathy  and  fellow-feeling  of  one  who  shared  in 
it  all  to  the  full — every  sorrow  that  then  oppressed  the  Heart  of 
Jesus,  every  pang  and  agony  that  He  was  enduring? 

She  is  His  own  Mother : she  stands  there  and  sees  Him  suff ering, 
outraged,  forsaken,  slowly  dying  of  pain  and  thirst  and  grief. 
He  will  not,  it  is  true,  give  up  His  spirit  till  He  wills;  but  He 
endures  all  the  pangs  of  that  slow,  agonizing,  cruelly  deliberate 
on-coming  of  death  which  crucifixion  meant.  Mary,  His  Mother, 
watches  this.  She  is  enlightened  by  her  wonderful  love  to  enter 
into  it  all ; she  is  enlightened  by  that  love,  and  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
to  know  and  to  understand  and  to  feel  all  His  dreadful  mental 
anguish — and  above  all  that  anguish  which  He  then  felt  at  the 
weight  of  the  whole  world’s  sins  laid  upon  His  shoulders — that 
terrible  mountain  of  loathsome  sin,  so  loathsome  to  His  all-pure 
soul  that  He  had  cried  out  in  the  Garden  for  that  chalice  at  least 
to  pass  from  Him — she  understands  it  all,  she  knows  how  His 
soul  is  shrinking  from  that  contact.  He  has  offered  Himself 
willingly  for  men  to  His  Father  to  hear  willingly  all  the  sufferings 
laid  upon  Him  by  God  in  atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  world — but 
worst  of  all  is  the  close  presence  of  sin,  that  mystery  of  sin  and 
evil  in  contact  with  the  All-Holy,  sinless  Himself,  yet  borne  down 
by  the  sins  of  all  men,  past  and  present  and  yet  to  come.  In  all 
this  Mary  shares,  so  that,  as  a spiritual  writer  has  said,  “three  times 
over  is  she  crucified  with  Jesus — crucified  by  being  present;  cruci- 
fied by  her  mother’s  love;  crucified  by  her  holiness  and  horror 
of  sin.”  For,  just  as  she  is  herself  holy  and  sinless  is  she  able  more 
than  any  other  to  understand  the  agony  of  the  soul  of  Jesus  at  the 
presence  of  our  iniquities  that  God  has  laid  upon  Him. 

And  as  she  stands  there,  Jesus  looks  down  upon  her.  And  from 
her  He  looks  to  the  beloved  disciple  who  is  by  her  side.  He  looks 
sorrowfully,  lovingly,  from  one  to  the  other.  He  foresees 
those  years  that  His  Mother  must  live  upon  earth  after  He 
has  ascended  to  His  Father.  He  would  provide  her  with  a guard- 
ian. He  says  to  her,  indicating  the  beloved  Apostle  Saint  John, 
“'Woman,  behold#  thy  son” ; and  then,  looking  upon  His  faithful 


THE  THIRD  WORD 


*9 


Apostle  He  says,  “Son,  behold  thy  Mother.”  “And  from  that 
hour,”  St.  John  himself  tells  us,  “the  disciple  took  her  to  his  own” 
(St.  John  xix,  27),  that  is,  to  his  own  abode,  to  dwell  with  him. 

Brethren,  not  without  a deep  meaning  did  our  divine  Lord  utter 
this  third  word  from  the  Cross.  The  constant  tradition  of  the 
Church  and  of  holy  writers  has  put  upon  these  expressions 
of  Jesus  to  His  blessed  Mother  and  the  beloved  Disciple  an 
interpretation  which  makes  them  mean  more  than  they  would 
appear  to  mean  on  the  surface,  and  gives  to  them  an  appli- 
cation far  wider  than  the  application  immediately  visible  at  the 
time  our  blessed  Saviour  gave  utterance  to  them.  The  Holy 
Church  of  God,  taught  by  the  same  Holy  Spirit  who  inspired 
St.  John  to  record  this  saying  in  his  Gospel,  knows  that  it  had, 
in  the  mind  of  Jesus  when  He  uttered  it,  and  in  the  intention  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  when  He  moved  the  Evangelist  to  write  it,  this 
deeper  meaning  and  wider  application.  Thus  she  has  ever  held 
that  St.  John  represented  at  the  moment  all  the  redeemed  of 
Christ  for  whom  He  shed  His  Blood;  that  she  who  is  the  Mother 
of  God  is  also  the  Mother  of  men,  our  dear  Mother,  having  her 
place  and  part  in  the  redemption  worked  by  her  divine  Son. 

So,  then,  He  truly  was  saying  to  her — “Woman,  behold  thy  son, 
and  behold  all  thy  children  whom  I give  to  thee  henceforth”;  and 
He  was  saying  to  us,  “My  children,  for  whom  I die,  behold  your 
Mother  whom  I give  to  you.”  Brethren,  even  if  our  divine  Lord 
had  never  said  these  words,  we  still  should  have  known,  we  should 
have  been  able  to  gather  from  Catholic  doctrine  that  Mary  is 
our  true  spiritual  mother.  It  is  a truth  of  Christianity  that  the 
blessed  Mother  of  Jesus  is  our  Mother  also.  Those  who  have 
refused  to  recognize  the  maternal  office  of  Mary  towards  men  have 
shorn  the  Christian  religion  of  one  of  its  most  glorious,  most 
helpful  and  most  consoling  doctrines — not  a doctrine  invented  in 
later  times,  not  a doctrine  added  to  the  faith  delivered  to  the  saints, 
but  a doctrine  that  runs  through  and  is  a part  and  parcel  of  the 
whole  scheme  of  redemption  as  it  was  in  the  mind  of  God  from 
all  eternity,  and  as  it  has  been  carried  out  by  Him  in  time. 

The  motherhood  of  Mary  in  relation  to  the  redeemed  of  her 
Son,  the  fact  that  she  is  truly  our  spiritual  mother,  is  rooted  and 
grounded  in  the  fact  that  she  is  the  Mother  of  Jesus,  God-made- 
Man,  our  divine  Redeemer.  He  is  the  Son  of  God  from  all  eternity, 
the  only  begotten  of  the  Father.  By  taking  flesh  He  became  our 


20 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


Brother,  one  of  our  race.  We  also  were  already  sons  of  God  in 
a sense,  by  creation.  But  our  divine  Lord,  by  becoming  Man, 
has  made  possible  for  us  a higher  sonship,  by  which  we  are  sons 
of  God  in  a higher  way.  For  He  is  the  Son  of  God,  not  by  creation, 
but  because  He  possesses  the  same  Divine  Nature  as  His  Father, 
which  is  communicated  to  Him  from  all  eternity;  and  by  His 
divine  sanctifying  grace  He  gives  to  us  a higher  sonship  than  that 
which  we  have  by  our  creation,  a sonship  of  adoption,  by  which 
we  are  adopted  into  the  divine  family,  and  made  no  longer  servants 
only,  but  adopted  sons  of  our  heavenly  Father.  And,  dear 
brethren,  this  adoption  into  the  family  of  God  involves  more  than 
the  mere  legal  notion  that  is  contained  in  the  idea  of  human 
adoption.  Human  adoption  does  not  make  any  real  kinship,  any 
real  relationship,  between  him  who  adopts  and  him  who  is  adopted : 
but  the  adoption  of  grace  does:  it  sets  up  a real  relationship  with 
God;  a new  and  higher  relationship.  Grace  gives  us  a new  divine 
life  that  is  communicated  to  us  by  God;  a life  that  the  Apostle 
St.  Peter  goes  so  far  as  to  call  “a  participation  of  the  divine 
nature.”  And  this  is  through  Jesus  Christ,  through  His  Incar- 
nation, Birth,  Passion  and  Death. 

“Grace  to  you  and  peace  be  accomplished,”  writes  St.  Peter,  “in 
the  knowledge  of  God  and  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord — by  whom  He 
hath  given  us  most  great  and  precious  promises : that  by  these  you 
may  be  made  participators  of  the  divine  nature”  (II.  Pet.  i,  2 and  4). 
Jesus,  God-made-Man,  by  His  grace  becomes  the  life  of  our  souls, 
we  are  new  creatures  in  Him. — “Put  on  the  new  man,”  says  the  holy 
Apostle  St.  Paul,  “who  according  to  God  is  created  in  justice  and 
holiness  of  truth”  (Eph.  iv,  24). 

And  who  was  it,  I ask  you,  my  dear  brethren,  who  brought  to 
us,  who  introduced  into  the  world  Jesus,  our  new  life,  the  very 
life  of  our  souls?  It  was  none  other  than  Mary,  the  ever-blessed 
Mother  of  God.  So  then,  just  as  a mother  co-operates  in  giving 
physical  and  natural  life  to  her  children,  so  did  Mary  co-operate 
with  God  in  giving  to  us  Jesus  who  is  the  supernatural  life  of  our 
souls.  Truly,  then,  and  in  actual  fact,  by  reason  of  her  true  mother- 
hood of  Jesus,  she  is  our  dear  mother  also ; and  as  by  divine  grace 
the  Father  of  Jesus  becomes  our  Father  also,  so  too  His  Mother, 
has  become  our  Mother,  the  second  Eve,  mother  of  all  the  living,  of 
all  those  to  whom  is  given  the  spiritual  life  of  which  she  was  the 
chosen  channel  to  bring  it  to  men.  “She  has  brought  us  to  our  second 


THE  THIRD  WORD 


21 


and  spiritual  birth,  she  was  made  the  source  of  our  life,  and  became 
our  Mother  in  becoming  the  Mother  of  Jesus  Christ”  (Bishop 
Bellord:  “Meditations  on  Christian  Dogma,”  Vol.  II,  p.  353). 

So,  then,  Mary  has  for  us  all  a mother’s  love.  Could  it  be 
otherwise?  If  the  mother  who  gives  bodily  life  to  her  children 
is  bound  to  them  by  that  fact  in  a relationship  of  undying  love, 
shall  it  not  be  so  with  her  who  by  her  willing  co-operation  brought 
to  us  Jesus,  our  Life,  and  so  was  the  chosen  instrument  used  by 
God  for  our  spiritual  re-birth.  We  know  that  it  is  so:  we  know  that 
she  is  still  our  Mother.  When  she  stood  beneath  the  Cross  and 
willingly  offered  up  her  Son  for  our  salvation,  willingly  endured 
her  awful  martyrdom  of  sorrow,  she  had  in  mind  the  redeemed 
of  Jesus.  When  she  heard  that  word  “Woman,  behold  thy  son,” 
she  accepted  not  only  the  beloved  disciple  but  us  also  to  be  her 
children.  Then  she  took  upon  her  the  office  of  Mother  of  the 
Church,  Mother  of  the  Mystical  Body  of  her  Son  to  whose  Body 
of  flesh  she  had  given  life.  Thus,  as  the  first  Eve  co-operated 
in  our  fall,  she,  the  second  Eve,  co-operated  in  our  redemption. 
This  is  her  place  in  the  scheme  of  salvation.  It  was  God’s  holy 
will  and  divine  Wisdom  to  overcome  the  evil  one  by  the  same 
weapons  with  which  he  had  gained  his  passing  victory  over  our 
first  parents.  As  we  were  ruined  with  the  co-operation  of  the 
woman,  who  tempted  Adam  the  head  of  our  race  to  that  sin  by 
which  we  fell  in  him,  so  God  would  and  did  restore  us  with  the 
co-operation  of  another  woman,  acting  with  the  second  Adam,  the 
Head  of  our  race  restored.  As  we  fell  in  Adam,  yet  not  without 
the  sad  concurrence  and  co-operation  of  Eve,  so,  indeed,  by  Jesus 
are  we  redeemed,  and  not  by  Mary,  yet  not  without  her  willing 
and  active  co-operation. 

And,  dear  brethren,  are  we  to  suppose  that  now, — now  that  she 
reigns  gloriously  in  heaven  with  her  Son,  she  has  ceased  to  take 
interest  in  her  spiritual  children ; has  ceased  to  co-operate  with  Him 
in  the  work  of  our  salvation.  By  no  means ! Still  she  loves  us ; still 
she  aids  in  the  work  of  our  salvation ; still  she  spiritually  brings  forth 
Jesus  in  us,  and  brings  us  forth  to  God.  And  this  she  does  by 
virtue  of  her  position  and  office  given  to  her  in  those  words, 
“Woman,  behold  thy  son,”  belonging  to  her  as  I have  shown  you, 
by  the  very  fact  that  she  is  the  Mother  of  Jesus.  And  her  work 
for  us  now  is  done  by  intercession.  “I  have  read” — in  Holy 
Scripture — “says  a modern  writer,  “that  Christ  can  no  more  suffer 


s 2 THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 

or  die ; but  I have  never  read  that  He  has  laid  aside  His  filial  love 
for  His  Mother.  I have  read  that  death  has  lost  its  empire  over 
Him;  but  I have  never  read  that  His  Mother  has  resigned  her 
empire  of  love  over  Him.  He  indeed  is  her  King,  but  she  is  the 
King’s  Mother,  and  while  she  is  His  subject — the  first  subject  of 
His  kingdom,  she  is  also  His  best-beloved,  and  He  gives  to  her 
freely  the  sweet  empire  of  love  over  His  Heart”  (Paraphrased 
from  Mgr.  Gay,  apud  V.  D.  Artaud,  La  Vraie  Piete,  Paris,  1911). 

Go  to  her  then,  my  brethren,  with  the  fullest  confidence.  Open 
your  hearts  to  her  sweet  and  powerful  influence.  As  the  belovad 
disciple  “took  her  unto  his  own,”  so  do  you  take  her  to  your  hearts. 
Love  her  always,  venerate  her,  invoke  her,  and  she  will  be  to  you 
a mother,  she  will  bring  you  forth  to  God,  she  will  form  Jesus 
within  your  souls  through  the  Holy  Spirit  whose  choicest  gifts 
and  graces  she  will  obtain  for  you  by  her  prayers  to  Jesus  her  Son. 


THE  FOURTH  WORD 


25 


The  Fourth  Word 


“And  about  the  ninth  hour  Jesus  cried  with  a loud  voice,  saying:  * . . . 

My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  Me.’  ” — St.  Matt,  xxvii,  46. 


SYNOPSIS. — The  darkness  on  Calvary;  the  agonies  of  Jesus  during  the  three 
hours — the  sad  history  of  man’s  fall , and  of  men’s  sins  till  the  end  of 
time  passes  before  His  mind;  the  sins  of  Catholics,  too.  The  lifting  of 
the  physical  darkness  is  followed  by  the  descent  of  the  darkness  of  the 
dereliction  upon  the  soul  of  Jesus.  Look,  on  Him  as  the  daylight  returns! 
Who  would  know  Him  as  the  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  Mary?  The  fourth 
word:  “ My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  Me?”  What  does  it 
mean?  It  is  a mystery;  yet  saints  and  doctors  of  the  Church  can  lead  us 
a little  way  into  the  understanding  of  this  mystery. 

Extract  from  a modern  writer  ( the  Abbe  Fouard)  explaining  the  mean- 
ing of  Christ’s  dereliction: 

“We  must  remember  that  Jesus  actually  bore  the  load  of  our  crimes; 
He  ‘ became  sin’  for  our  sakes.  In  that  hour  God  abandoned  .Him  to  the 
distress  of  this  contact  with v sin.  His  vision  of  the  multitude  of  the 
damned,  for  whom  He  knew  that  He  was  dying  in  vain.  _ The  mystery  of 
the  Dereliction  part  of  the  deep  mystery  of  the  Incarnation.  Both  in  the 
Incarnation  and  the  Dereliction  the  divinity  remained  inviolable.” 

One  thing  all  through  is  clear — it  was  our  sins  that  caused  this  terrible 
abandonment. 

“Him  who  knew  no  sin”  God  “ hath  made  sin  for  us,  that  we  might 
be  made  the  justice  of  God  in  Him.” 

Exhortation. — At  the  time  of  temptation  to  remember  this  dereliction 
of  Jesus,  and  to  spare  Him  the  added  weight  of  a new  sin , consoling  His 
sacred  Heart  by  our  faithfulness. 

The  holy  Gospel  tells  us  that  from  the  sixth  hour,  soon  after 
our  blessed  Lord  was  lifted  up  on  His  Cross,  until  the  ninth  hour, 
shortly  before  His  death,  a terrible  and  appalling  darkness  covered 
the  land,  and  shut  out  from  view  the  hill  of  Calvary  and  the 
tragedy  that  was  being  enacted  thereon.  Who  can  tell  what  Jesus 
suffered  during  the  hours  of  that  darkness?  Even  had  the  bright 
light  of  the  sun  shone  upon  the  scene,  only  the  outward  part  of 
that  tragedy  would  have  been  visible:  the  most  terrible  element 
thereof,  the  secret  unnameable  agonies  of  the  soul  of  Jesus  would 
still  have  been  hidden:  what  they  were  we  never  can  completely 
know.  Helped  by  the  word  of  Scripture  and  by  the  enlightened 
meditations  of  saints,  to  whom  God  has  revealed  these  things  in 
prayer  or  ecstasy,  we  can  know  something  of  the  mental  sufferings 
of  our  divine  Lord  during  this  time.  Then  the  whole  sad  history 
of  man’s  fall  and  man’s  sin  passed  through  His  mind.  He  saw 
the  original  loving  intentions  of  God,  in  creating  man  to  serve 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS • 


24 

Him,  love  Him,  glorify  Him  and  be  forever  blessed  by  the  pos- 
session of  Him.  He  saw  the  temptation  and  most  unhappy  fall 
of  our  first  parents.  He  saw  the  whole  flood  of  sin  and  misery 
and  unhappiness,  of  evil  and  disease  and  death  that  was  let  loose 
upon  the  world  by  that  first  miserable  act  of  disobedience.  He 
heard  the  cries  of  the  murdered,  the  wailings  of  infants  born  in 
poverty  and  degradation;  the  foolish  mirth  of  the  profligate,  the 
wretched  merry-making  of  drunkards.  He  contemplated  the  scenes 
of  war  and  rapine,  heard  the  groans  and  cries  of  the  wounded 
and  the  dying.  He  saw  the  ravages  of  plagues  and  sickness,  the 
“thousand  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to.”  Worse  still,  He  saw  and 
knew  in  all  its  sad  deformity  the  corruption  of  souls  in  sin,  the 
defacement  of  God’s  image  and  likeness  in  which  they  had  been 
created,  the  wilful  rejection  of  grace,  the  conscious  rebellion  of 
sinners  against  God’s  most  holy  and  most  righteous  law,  the  selling 
of  their  precious  birthright  as  sons  of  God.  And  He  saw  these 
things  not  only  in  souls  who  knew  Him  not  as  their  Redeemer,  to 
whom  His  great  love  had  not  been  revealed,  but  saw  this  rejection 
of  grace,  this  wilful  plunging  into  sin  on  the  part  of  Christians 
and  Catholics,  to  whom  treasures  of  His  grace  and  mercy  have 
been  made  known. 

Brethren,  He  saw  the  evil  of  wilful  sin  in  us:  He  saw  how  we, 
in  spite  of  all  that  He  was  then  suffering,  should  oft  and  again 
prefer  the  vain  degrading  pleasures  of  mortal  sin  to  His  love  and 
His  sweet  service. 

As  the  ninth  hour  approached,  the  darkness  that  had  covered 
the  land  slowly  lifted,  and  once  more  the  rays  of  the  sun  lit  up 
the  mount  of  Calvary  and  the  three  crosses  that  on  its  summit 
stood  out  against  the  sky.  Oh  what  a sight  it  was!  Look, 
brethren,  look  upon  the  sight  of  Jesus  hanging  there.  Who  would 
know  Him  for  the  Son  of  God?  Truly,  as  the  Prophet  foretold 
“there  is”  now  “no  beauty  in  Him  nor  comeliness;  and  we  have 
seen  Him,  and  there  was  no  sightliness,  that  we  should  be  desirous 
of  Him:  despised,  and  the  most  abject  of  men,  a man  of  sorrows, 
and  acquainted  with  infirmity,  and  his  look  was  as  it  were  hidden 
and  despised,  whereupon  we  esteemed  Him  not.  Surely  He  hath 
borne  our  infirmities  and  carried  our  sorrows ; and  we  have  thought 
Him  as  it  were  a leper  and  as  one  struck  by  God  and  afflicted” 
(Isaias  liii,  2-4).  Yes,  brethren,  who,  I ask,  would  have  known 
Him  then,  so  wounded,  so  smitten,  brought  down  so  low,  for  the 


THE  FOURTH  WORD 


25 


fair  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  Mary?  Where  is  the  beauty  of  that 
countenance,  the  sweetness  of  that  light  of  love  divine  which 
shone  from  His  eyes,  which  in  a moment  made  the  Magdelene  a 
saint  and  drew  the  tears  of  loving  penitence  from  the  eyes  of  Peter  ? 
Where  is  the  grace  of  that  form,  of  that  Sacred  Body  so  perfectly 
moulded  as  the  dwelling-place  of  the  Word?  Ah!  how  changed, 
how  disfigured,  how  defiled ! That  head  all  bowed  down  in  agony, 
pierced  with  the  hard  thorns  of  the  crown  they  had  put  upon  Him : 
those  eyes  closed  up  with  blood,  His  body  all  one  great  wound  from 
head  to  foot,  strained  and  stretched  and  racked  upon  the  rough 
wood  of  His  Cross,  hands  and  feet  torn  and  mangled  by  the  huge 
nails  driven  through  them.  Ah,  my  friends  and  fellow  sinners, 
what  a sight  was  unveiled  when  that  curtain  of  merciful  darkness 
was  drawn  aside!  But  these  bodily  sufferings,  this  agonizing 
torture  and  rigorous  punishment  of  the  Body  of  Jesus  were  little 
compared  with  the  agonies  of  His  most  loving,  most  sensitive  soul. 
Upon  that  blessed  Soul  of  His  there  descends  now  a mysterious 
and  awful  darkness  of  spirit.  He,  the  All-Holy  Son  of  the  Father, 
in  some  dread  and  scrutable  way  feels  Himself  forsaken  by  God; 
and  in  the  abandonment  of  extremest  desolation  He  cries  out  with 
a loud  voice  “Eli,  Eli , lamma  sabachthani  ” “My  God,  My  God, 
why  hast  Thou  forsaken  Me?” 

“This  lament,”  says  a modern  writer  (The  Abbe  Fouard,  “The 
Christ  the  Son  of  God,”  Eng.  Trans.,  Vol.  II,  p.  336)  “is  the  opening 
of  the  Psalm  wherein  the  Messiah’s  passion  is  all  predicted, — 
(Psalm  xxi)  His  strength  ebbing  away  in  streams  of  blood, 
His  burning  wounds  and  that  parching  thirst  of  whose  fierceness 
the  dying  man  alone  has  any  knowledge.” 

But  what  does  it  mean?  How  can  the  eternal  Son,  who  is  one 
with  His  Father,  be  forsaken  by  that  Father?  This  is  indeed  an 
unfathomable  mystery.  Yet  holy  writers  and  doctors  of  the  Church, 
enlightened  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  have  penetrated  a little  way  into 
the  awful  mystery  of  God  the  Son  abandoned  on  the  Cross,  and 
uttering  that  exceeding  bitter  cry,  “My  God,  My  God,  why  hast 
Thou  forsaken  Me?”  The  writer  whom  I have  just  quoted  sums 
up  the  teaching  of  these  holy  writers  in  a passage  which  I cannot 
do  better  than  quote  to  you  at  length,  since  I think  it  throws  light 
upon  this  subject  which,  although  a mystery,  yet,  like  all  the  sacred 
mysteries  of  our  holy  religion  abundantly  repays  our  study  and  what 
understanding  of  it  our  human  minds  with  God’s  help  can  attain — 


26 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


repays  with  rich  spiritual  fruit  that  study  and  the  understanding 
which  we  may  have  by  prayful,  humble  and  devout  contemplation 
under  the  guidance  of  the  saints. 

“Never  did  any  dying  soul,”  says  the  writer  to  whom  I allude, 
“feel  as  Jesus  felt  when  now  forsaken  by  God,  because  none  but 
He  alone  has  ever  lived  with  God  and  in  God.  Hanging  there, 
reviled  by  earth  and  rejected  by  heaven,  He  lingered  in  lonely 
conflict  with  another  agony  like  that  which  passed  over  Him 
in  Gethsemane,  yet  this  time  He  drained  the  cup  to  the  very 
dregs.  To  gather  any  idea  of  the  wretchedness  which  seized  Him 
in  His  present  abandonment,  we  must  remember  that  despite  His 
own  innocence,  Jesus,  when  upon  the  Cross,  bore  the  actual  load 
of  our  crimes — that  He  actually  had  taken  upon  Himself  the 
wickedness  of  the  world.  And  now  that  God  had  transferred  to 
Him  all  sins  committed  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  time,  these 
all  stood  forth  distinctly  before  His  dying  eyes  together  with  their 
very  least  circumstances.  Every  treacherous  and  revengeful  deed, 
the  lewd  and  adulterous  works  of  shame,  blasphemies,  slanders  and 
lying — all  together  surged  their  foul  floods  into  His  soul,  and  every 
other  sense  was  swallowed  up  under  these  torrents  of  iniquity. 
And  it  was  in  this  same  hour  wherein  the  Christ  was,  as  it  were, 
overwhelmed  in  that  first  wild  onslaught,  that  God  saw  fit  to 
withdraw  His  Presence  from  Him,  as  if  to  crush  Him  beneath 
the  weight  of  His  vengeance.  Jesus,  ‘having  become  sin  for 
our  sake/  being  made  ‘a  curse  and  an  execration’  (Gal.  iii,  13) 
(according  to  St.  Paul’s  expression).  Jesus  suffered  at  the  hand  of 
God  such  unutterable  horror  as  no  human  tongue  can  declare. 
In  that  hour  heaven  drew  away  from  Him  into  the  darkness; 
hell  alone  remained  before  the  Saviour’s  sight, — wherein  was  dis- 
closed that  never-ending  despair,  eternal,  infinite,  even  as  is 
the  God  whose  penalty  it  is. 

“One  lowermost  depth  of  sorrow  had  still  to  be  reached.  . . * 
The  multitude  of  the  damned  were  all  marshaled  before  His  eyes; 
however  unworthy,  they  were  the  members  of  His  mystical  Body, 
so  closely  united  to  Him  that  they  could  not  be  separated  from  Him 
without  violence.  And  as  He  saw  this  dearly  loved  portion  of 
Himself  about  to  be  wrested  from  Him,  Jesus  felt  as  if  He,  indeed, 
like  them,  were  left  destitute  and  reprobate  forever.  He  mourned, 
‘that  the  fruit  of  His  struggles  should  be  torn  from  Him;  He 
cried  aloud  that  His  sweat,  His  toils  and  His  death  were  thus 


THE  FOURTH  WORD 


27 


bereft  of  their  reward;  since  those  for  whom  He  had  suffered  so 
much  were  abandoned  to  everlasting  perdition.’  This,  then,  was 
what  wrung  from  Him  that  mournful  cry:  ‘My  God!  My  God! 
dost  Thou  abandon  Me?’  But  how  can  we  make  this  moment  of 
apparent  despair  to  which  Jesus  yielded  harmonize  with  the  blessed- 
ness essential  to  His  divine  personality?  Herein  again  there  is 
involved  an  unfathomable  mystery,  the  Mystery  of  the  Incar- 
nation. To  comprehend  how  God  the  Son  could  speak  of  Himself 
as  forsaken  by  His  Father,’  we  should  first  need  to  explain  how 
the  Infinite  Being  could  take  upon  Himself  a finite  nature;  for 
between  these  two  humiliations  there  is  only  a difference  of  degree 
— the  abandonment  of  Jesus  on  the  Cross  only  continued  what  was 
first  accomplished  in  the  Incarnation,  and  in  these  two  mysteries 
the  Godhead  remains  equally  inviolable.  With  Christ  in  His 
anguish  it  was  even  as  with  those  mountain  chains  whose  white 
crests  pierce  the  clouds.  Often  the  tempests  do  havoc  with  their 
rugged  sides,  strewing  them  with  the  wreckage  of  the  storm; 
yet  naught  can  trouble  the  snowy  peaks,  which,  far,  far  above  the 
whirlwind’s  reach,  stand  evermore  serene  and  crowned  with  light” 
(Ibid.  pp.  336-338). 

Although,  now,  dear  brethren,  this  terrible  dereliction  of  Jesus 
is  a mystery  included  in  that  deep  Mystery  of  the  Incarnation  by 
which,  being  true  God  and  true  Man,  the  word  incarnate  possesses 
and  exercises  both  divine  and  human  operations,  could  suffer  and 
die ; though,  too,  it  is  beyond  us  fully  to  comprehend  how  His  soul, 
though  ever  beautiful  by  the  direct  vision  of  God,  could  yet  feel 
most  truly  and  really  the  sense  of  utter  forsakenness  and  abandon- 
ment by  His  Eternal  Father  which  caused  that  bitter  lament  to 
come  forth  from  His  overburdened  and  anguished  Heart,  yet  this 
is  clear,  and  this  is  what  concerns  us  most  and  concerns  us  per- 
sonally— that  it  was  our  sins,  of  thought,  word,  deed  and  of  omis- 
sion, that  caused  His  awful  dereliction  and  desolation  of  soul  in 
that  moment  of  supreme  agony.  The  contact,  the  real  contact 
with  that  mountain  of  vileness  represented  by  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world,  a heap  of  sin  in  which  every  sin,  yours  and  mine,  and  every 
single  sin  of  yours  and  mine,  stood  out  distinctly  with  all  its  own 
particular  vileness  and  ingratitude — this  contact,  from  which  His 
all-holy  soul  shudderingly  shrank,  yet  might  not  escape,  was  the 
cause  of  His  horror;  while  to  the  Father,  at  that  moment  what  was 
He?  He  was  changed  as  it  were  into  sin,  changed,  as  bearing 


28 


THE  SEVEN  EAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


our  sins  in  His  own  Body,  into  that  which  God  hates  and  must 
hate  with  eternal  unrelenting  hatred  wherever  it  exists — for,  as 
St.  Paul  writes,  “Him,  who  knew  no  sin,”  God  “hath  made  sin  for 
us,  that  we  might  be  made  the  justice  of  God  in  Him”  (II.  Cor. 
v,  21). 

Ah,  brethren!  when  you  are  tempted  to  forsake  Jesus  by  sin, 
think  how  He  was  forsaken,  given  up  to  the  hideous  clutches  of  vile 
sin  for  you.  Pause  before  you  add  another  to  that  great  innumer- 
able multitude  of  sins  that  oppressed  Him.  For,  though  now  He 
can  suffer  no  more,  yet  in  that  moment,  knowing  all  the  future, 
He  knew  whether  in  the  moment  of  trial  you  would  stand  firm  and 
be  faithful,  or  whether  with  cruel  ingratitude  you  would  wound 
His  Sacred  Heart  again,  refusing  Him  any  comfort,  adding  to  His 
bitter  desolation.  And,  though  His  actual  suffering  for  your  every 
act  of  sin  is  in  the  past,  yet  truly  in  that  past,  at  that  bitter  hour 
of  His  Passion,  it  was  your  free  act  and  wilful  determination  of 
sinning  now , clearly  foreseen  then,  that  desolated  His  most  loving 
soul.  Stay  then  your  hand;  do  not  that  murderous  act  of  sin! 
Rather  give  joy  to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Him  who  loves  you  by 
your  faithfulness,  and  so  lift  at  least  something  from  the  weight 
of  sin  that  bore  Him  down.  He  will  not  forget  you:  He  will 
number  you  amongst  His  friends ; He  will  thank  you  one  day  that 
you  spared  Him  this  act  of  sin  to  which  the  devil  has  tempted 
you.  Think  thus  and  act  thus  in  every  temptation,  and  thus  the 
Apostle’s  words  will  come  true  to  you,  and  through  Him  who  was 
“made  sin”  for  us  you  will  be  “'made  the  justice” — the  righteousness, 
the  holiness  of  God. 


THE  FIFTH  WORD 


29 


The  Fifth  Word 


“I  thirst.” — St.  John  xix,  28. 

SYNOPSIS. — The  sufferings  of  Jesus  surpassed  all  other  sufferings  known 
on  earth.  Before  we  consider  the  “fifth  word ” we  will  review  the  suffer- 
ings of  His  Passion  in  general.  How  they  surpassed  all  others.  We  do 
not  speak  of  the  pains  of  hell  nor  of  purgatory,  but  of  earth.  We  do  not 
mean  that  Crucifixion,  in  itself,  is  the  most  painful  of  deaths  possible.  But 
our  blessed  Lord  suffered  both  in  body  and  mind:  (a)  His  Body  was 
so  formed  that  physical  suffering  was  specially  painful  to  Him.  ( b ) His 
intellect  had  a capacity  beyond  all  others  to  enter  into  suffering.  Let  us 
devoutly  explore  the  sufferings  of  Jesus. 

I.  He  suffered  from  all  classes  of  men.  Jews,  Gentiles',  the  rich  and 
powerful,  the  mob,  from  women  as  well  as  men,  priests  and  lay  people, 
friends  and  enemies. 

II.  Every  class  of  sin  was  committed  against  Him:  “ the  concupiscence 
of  the  fiesh;  the  concupiscence  of  the  eyes,  the  pride  of  life.”  These 
exemplified  in  His  three  Judges,  Caiphas  ( Pride  of  Life),  Herod  ( Con- 
cupiscence of  the  Flesh).  Pilate  ( Concupiscence  of  the  Eyes).  These 
classes  of  sin  are  constantly  repeated  in  our  own  times.  Examples.  Re- 
member that  Jesus  knew  and  felt  oH  these  sins  on  His  Passion;  our  sins. 

III.  There  was  no  species  of  suffering  that  He  did  not  endure,  both 
in  body  and  soul,  in  all  His  senses. 

IV.  He  suffered  to  extremity  because  He  willed  to,  in  order  to  satisfy 
and  prove  His  love.  His  thirst.  Its  physical  characteristics : a type  of 
His  thirst  for  souls.  Development  of  this  thought.  Exhortation  not  to 
deny  our  Lord  that  return  of  love,  that  recognition  for  which  He  thirsted. 

There  is  no  doubt,  dear  brethren  in  Jesus  Christ,  that  the 
sufferings  of  our  divine  Lord  in  His  Sacred  Passion  surpassed  in 
intensity  all  other  sufferings  known  on  earth  before  or  since;  and 
before  we  contemplate  that  special  bitter  suffering  which  He  Him- 
self has  revealed  to  us  in  this  short  word  from  the  Cross,  sitio, 
“I  thirst,”  it  will  be  well  for  us  to  contemplate  for  a while  in  general 
those  sufferings  which  He  willed  to  endure  for  our  salvation. 

I have  said  that  no  earthly  suffering  ever  has  surpassed  or  will 
surpass  the  sufferings  of  Jesus.  I do  not  speak  of  any  but  suffering 
endured  on  earth.  We  are  not  considering  the  sufferings  of  the 
lost,  nor  those  of  the  souls  in  Purgatory.  And  when  we  say  that 
our  blessed  Lord’s  sufferings  surpass  all  other  suffering  upon  earth, 
we  do  not  mean  that  the  form  of  death  inflicted  upon  Him — namely, 
crucifixion — is  absolutely  the  most  painful  kind  of  death  a man 
can  suffer.  Crucifixion  is  indeed  one  of  the  most  lingering  and 
painful  of  deaths  that  the  ingenuity  of  human  cruelty  ever  has 
devised : the  racking  of  every  limb,  the  terrible  exhaustion,  the 


3° 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


impossibility  of  finding  the  least  ease  or  respite,  the  insupportable 
weariness  of  the  victim’s  drooping  head — all  this  intensified  in 
our  blessed  Lord’s  case  by  His  previous  ill-treatment  and  suffering 
— made  crucifixion  a most  dreadful  infliction.  But  there  are 
tortures  physically  more  painful. 

Yet  it  is  true,  nevertheless,  that  no  one  has  ever  suffered  or  even 
could  suffer  like  Jesus  did.  We  will  see  why  this  was  so.  We 
must  remember  that  our  blessed  Lord  suffered  not  only  in  body 
but  in  mind.  We  must  remember  that  His  physical  sufferings 
were  more  terrible  and  poignant  to  Him  than  they  would  have  been 
to  any  other.  Never  was  there  a body  so  delicately  sensible,  by 
reason  of  its  very  perfection,  to  every  physical  feeling  as  the 
Body  of  Jesus.  Moreover,  physical  suffering  is  intensified  by 
alertness  and  perfection  of  intellect  and  the  capacity  to  enter  into 
it  and  feel  it,  and  drain  the  bitter  cup  to  the  full  with  an  unmitigated 
taste  of  its  contents.  Never  was  there  an  intellect  so  capable  of 
penetrating  to  its  depths  the  suffering  He  endured,  of  surrender- 
ing itself  to  every  pang,  missing  nothing,  escaping  nothing,  as  the 
intellect  of  the  Word-made-Flesh.  None  like  He,  whose  Sacred 
Heart  is  the  very  Fount  of  divine  Charity,  could  so  feel  and  so 
shrink  from  the  evil  of  sin  which  was  all  about  Him,  which  He 
had  taken  upon  Himself ; none  could  appreciate  as  He  could  the 
sufferings  of  the  lost  which  He  saw  before  Him  and  which  op- 
pressed Him  with  unutterable  wo. 

Let  us,  then,  devoutly  explore  the  sufferings  of  our  dear  Master 
and  Saviour  as  far  as  we  can,  lovingly,  reverently,  with  sorrow  and 
with  compassion.  And  first,  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  surpass  all 
others  upon  earth  in  this,  that  He  suffered  at  the  hands  of  all 
classes  of  men : all  classes  either  took  an  active  part  in  His  death 
or  added  to  His  sufferings.  Flis  own  people,  the  Jews,  Gentiles 
also ; the  rich  and  powerful  as  well  as  the  ignorant  mob ; persons 
of  both  sexes  alike,  priests  and  lay  people,  His  own  friends,  apostles 
and  disciples,  those  who,  having  sat  at  His  feast  and  at  one  time 
believed  in  Him  but  afterwards  forsook  Him,  as  those  did,  who 
could  not  accept  His  teaching  concerning  the  holy  Eucharist,  or 
who  fled  from  Him  at  the  time  of  His  passion,  in  the  hour  of 
His  most  dreadful  extremity.  To  Him,  indeed,  forsaken  and  be- 
trayed by  those  nearest  and  dearest  to  Him,  belongs  that  pathetic 
and  prophetic  outcry  of  King  David  betrayed  by  his  friend  Achi- 
tophel,  “If  my  enemy  had  reviled  me,  I would  verily  have  borne 


THE  FIFTH  WORD 


31 


with  it,  and  if  he  that  hated  me  had  spoken  great  things  against 
me,  I would  perhaps  have  hidden  myself  from  him : but  thou,  a 
man  of  one  mind,  my  guide  and  my  familiar”  (Ps.  liv,  13-14). 

Moreover,  every  class  of  sin  was  committed  against  the  divine 
Sufferer.  Spiritual  writers  have  classified  sins  under  three  head- 
ings, following  the  Apostle  St.  John,  who  says  “all  that  is  in  the 
world,  is  the  concupiscence  of  the  flesh,  and  the  concupiscence  of 
the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life”  (II.  St.  John,  16).  And  this  uni- 
versality of  character  in  the  sins  committed  against  Jesus  is  es- 
pecially shown  in.  the  three  tribunals  before  which  He  was  brought. 
Thus  in  the  conduct  of  Caiphas  and  the  priests  we  see  exemplified 
the  pride  of  life — they  feared  to  lose  their  place  and  influence 
through  the  successful  preaching  and  miracles  of  Jesus.  “The  chief 
priests,  therefore,”  St.  John  tells  us,  “and  the  Pharisees  gathered 
a council,  and  said,  what  do  we,  for  this  man  doth  many  miracles? 
If  we  let  him  alone  so,  all  will  believe  in  him”  (St.  John  xi,  47-48). 
And  again  the  same  Evangelist  records  how  the  Pharisees  “said 
among  themselves : Do  you  see  that  we  prevail  nothing  ? Behold 
the  whole  world  is  gone  after  him”  (Ibid,  xii,  19). 

And  so,  to  save  themselves,  to  secure  their  vested  interests, 
they  pronounced  Him  worthy  of  death.  In  Herod,  another  of  our 
blessed  Lord’s  judges,  we  see  the  concupiscence  of  the  flesh.  He 
it  was  who  had  taken  to  himself  his  brother  Philip’s  wife,  and  had 
murdered  St.  John  the  Baptist  for  his  courageous  denunciation  of 
this  incestuous  crime.  He,  when  the  Christ  was  brought  before 
him,  rejoiced,  thinking  that  his  worldly  curiosity  might  be  gratified 
by  the  working  of  some  miracle.  Disappointed,  he  made  a mock 
of  Jesus,  causing  Him  to  be  clothed,  with  the  refinement  of  cruel 
irony,  in  the  white  robe  worn  amongst  the  Romans  by  approved 
competitors  for  a public  office.  Lastly,  in  Pilate  we  see  the  con- 
cupiscence of  the  eyes,  the  sin,  that  is,  of  human  respect,  the  fear 
of  offending  those  upon  whose  favor  he  depended  for  his  position 
and  prestige.  He  knew  that  Jesus  was  innocent,  but  he  was  afraid 
to  act  up  to  this  conviction  by  ordering  His  discharge.  He  was  con- 
quered by  the  subtle  threat  of  the  Jews.  “If  thou  release  this  man, 
thou  art  not  Caesar’s  friend”  (St.  John  xix,  12). 

Ah,  my  dear  brethren,  do  we  not  now  see  these  sins  repeatedly 
committed  against  our  blessed  Lord  in  our  own  days?  Does  not 
the  pride  of  life,  the  exaltation  of  human  reason  and  pride  against 
all  that  is  of  God  wage  relentless  war  against  Christ  and  His  holy 


3* 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


Church,  striving  to  set  up  the  kingdom  of  this  world,  of  “reason” 
and  of  “nature,”  against  the  kingdom  of  heaven?  Are  not  sins 
of  impurity  and  luxuriousness,  of  prodigal  extravagance  in  the 
pursuit  of  pleasure  and  excitement  and  new  sensations  a character- 
istic of  our  time?  Need  we  go  further  than  our  own  country  to 
see  these  things  which  are  the  concupiscence  of  the  flesh  carried 
out  to  a monstrous  degree;  so  that,  alas,  a certain  class  of  rich 
people  amongst  us  are  a bye-word  in  other  countries  for  the 
bizarre  extravagances  of  their  social  entertainments,  of  their 
pastimes  and  sinful  pleasures?  And  are  there  not  many,  like 
Pilate,  who  would  like  to  be  good  Catholics  and  profess  their 
religion  and  practise  their  religion?  They  know  they  ought:  they 
would  willingly  do  so — but  it  does  not  pay ; it  is  unfashionable ; 
they  would  be  laughed  at;  they  would  not  retain  the  favor  of  the 
powers  that  be;  they  would  lose  money,  place  and  consideration. 
So,  like  Pilate,  they  let  Jesus  go  to  the  wall.  Remember  always, 
dear  brethren,  when  you  are  meditating,  as  we  are  now,  upon  the 
passion  of  our  divine  Saviour,  that  the  sins  committed  against  Him 
e.t  the  actual  time  of  His  suffering  were  not  the  only  ones  that 
pierced  His  Sacred  Heart  with  grief ; but  that  He  felt  then  every  sin 
that  ever  had  been  and  that  ever  will  be  done  against  Him.  Those 
that  actually  accompanied  the  passion  are  typical  only,  the  visible 
part  of  that  huge  volume  of  sin  that  then  weighed  Him  down. 
Remember  also — never  forget, — that  our  personal  sins,  yours, 
brethren,  and  mine,  added  to  that  volume  each  its  separate,  distinct 
and  individual  part  that  smote  upon  the  tender  soul  of  the  Incar- 
nate One. 

Again,  there  was  no  species  of  suffering  that  Jesus  did  not 
endure.  The  betrayal  of  faithless,  ungrateful  friends,  of  those 
whom  He  had  greatly  benefited;  the  loss  of  His  good  name  and 
honor.  Scorn,  insults  and  contempt.  The  loss  of  all  He  possessed, 
down  to  the  very  clothes  He  wore.  He  suffered  in  body,  in  every 
part  of  His  Body,  and  in  all  His  senses;  from  grievous  wounds 
and  soreness,  from  the  extension  of  His  sacred  limbs,  from  un- 
utterable physical  weariness  and  loss  of  sleep,  from  the  sights 
about  Him,  from  witnessing  His  mother’s  grief,  from  the  hearing 
of  blasphemies,  from  the  taste  of  the  gall  and  vinegar,  from  the 
hard  wood  of  the  cross,  from  the  feeling  of  blows  and  stripes,  from 
hunger  and  thirst  and  the  faintness  of  very  death  itself,  death  which 
He  would  not  allow  to  free  Him  till  He  had  endured  to  the  bitter 


THE  FIFTH  WORD 


33 


end  all  that  He  had  set  Himself  to  suffer.  He  suffered  unspeak- 
ably, with  unimagined  and  untold  pain,  in  His  most  blessed  soul. 
Sadness,  sickening  weariness  of  spirit,  fear  and  shrinking,  shudder- 
ing terror  and  bitterest  desolation — all  these  came  upon  Him,  so 
that  the  Psalmist’s  words  again  apply  most  truly  of  all  to  Jesus: 
“The  waters  are  come  in,  even  to  my  soul;  I stick  fast  in  the  mire 
of  the  deep,  and  there  is  no  sure  standing.  I am  come  into  the 
depth  of  the  sea;  and  a tempest  hath  overwhelmed  me”  (Ps. 
lxviii,  1-3). 

There  is  one  more  reason,  my  dear  brethren,  besides  those  I 
have  already  given  you,  why  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  our  Saviour 
surpassed  any  other  earthly  suffering.  Being  God,  His  human  will 
was  completely  under  the  control  of  His  divine  will,  one  with  the 
will  of  His  Father.  His  human  will,  moreover,  had  complete 
command  over  all  His  feelings.  He  could  let  Himself  suffer 
as  much  or  as  little  as  He  willed.  He  could  open  His  soul 
wide  to  the  onrush  of  the  flood  of  pain  and  grief  that  came  towards 
Him,  or  He  could  close  it,  and  admit  only  so  much  as  He  pleased. 
In  truth,  being  God,  the  least  suffering  of  His  would  have  sufficed 
to  redeem  the  world.  But  this  was  not  the  measure  by  which  He 
measured  His  sufferings.  He  willed  to  make  them,  as  far  as 
finite  sufferings  could  be,  commensurate  with  His  love  for  us. 
Hence  He  put  no  bound  to  His  sufferings;  He  allowed  no  mitiga- 
tion. 

He  permitted  that  great  cataract  of  suffering  to  fall  upon  Him 
in  all  its  vastness  and  with  all  its  force.  He  did  so  because 
He  loves  us  so  greatly,  and  that  He  might  prove  His  love  to  the 
most  sceptical,  to  the  most  hard-hearted,  and  to  those  timidly  in- 
credulous souls  who  find  it  hard  to  realize  His  love. 

There  is  no  doubt,  then,  that  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  were  greater 
than  anything  that  any  other  has  suffered  or  could  suffer  upon  earth. 
Rightly  did  the  Prophet,  looking  forward  with  inspired  vision,  cry 
out  that  He  is  the  “Man  of  sorrows”  (Is.  liii,  3). 

Note. — This  sermon,  so  far,  is  based  on  the  treatment  of  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  by  Cardinal  Billot,  S.J.  De  V erbo  Incarnato;  Thesis  xlvii. 

Through  all  this  agony  of  piled  up  sufferings,  only  once  did  our 
divine  Lord  give  expression  to  the  feelings  of  physical  distress. 
It  was  when  He  spoke  that  mournful  word,  “/  thirst  ” 

Who  can  conceive  the  terrible  pain  which  wrung  this  cry  from 


34 


THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  FROM  THE  CROSS 


His  sacred  lips?  It  is  well  known  that  a raging  burning  thirst 
is  one  of  the  worst  pains  of  crucifixion.  We  read  of  a young 
Turk,  crucified  at  Damascus  in  1247,  that  the  “worst  of  all  his 
sufferings  were  the  pangs  of  thirst.”  “I  heard  this,”  says  the  writer 
who  records  it,  “from  an  eye-witness,  who  told  me  that  he  turned 
his  eyes  hither  and  thither,  beseeching  that  someone  would  give 
him  a mouthful  of  water”  (See  Fouard,  “The  Christ  the  Son  of 
God,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  338,  339,  Eng.  Trans.).  Holy  writers  say  that 
our  divine  Lord  told  us  of  this  special  suffering  because,  while 
His  other  physical  sufferings  are  apparent,  this  was  hidden,  and  we 
might  not  have  realized  it.  Certainly  also  it  brings  out  into  relief 
the  truth  of  the  humanity  of  God-made-Man.  This  thirst  of  Jesus 
has  been  the  inspiration  for  many  a victory  over  the  enslaving 
vice  of  intemperance ; for  many  an  act  of  courageous  mortification. 
Brethren,  does  it  not  appeal  to  you?  To  think  of  Jesus  thus  thirst- 
ing and  longing  for  a drop  of  water.  To  think  of  Him  seeing  the 
heartless  soldiers  drinking  their  wine  beneath  the  Cross,  and  He 
thirsting,  unable  to  obtain  the  least  alleviation  of  His  pain.  And 
when  He  moans  out  that  sad  cry  “I  thirst,”  they  give  Him  vinegar, 
upon  a sponge.  This  “vinegar”  was  in  reality  some  of  the  bitter 
and  highly  spiced  wine  that  the  guard  around  the  cross  were  drink- 
ing. One  of  them  was  moved  with  pity,  and  gave  to  the  divine 
Sufferer  a few  drops.  They  were  not  enough,  not  nearly  enough, 
to  produce  any  real  alleviation,  and  this  act  of  mercy  only  added 
to  the  bitterness  of  the  passion,  for  at  once  there  went  up  a shout 
of  remonstrance,  “Let  be ! Let  be ! And  see  if  Elias  will  come  and 
save  him.” 

But  this  physical  thirst  was  a type  of  that  divine  thirst  and 
longing  which  filled  the  Heart  of  our  blessed  Saviour — the  thirst  and 
longing  for  souls ; that  loving  thirst  for  their  salvation,  for  the  sal- 
vation of  all — of  those  who  ultimately  by  their  own  wilful  fault 
would  be  lost  as  well  as  of  those  who  should  be  saved;  that  thirst 
for  men’s  salvation  that  made  Him  eagerly  run  to  drink  in  suffering 
like  a river.  For  your  soul  and  mine,  dear  brethren,  He  thirsted 
then ; that  His  love  might  be  satisfied,  that  He  might  have  us  with 
Him  for  eternity,  and  might  for  all  eternity  lavish  His  love  upon  us 
— and  we  will  not!  Often  we  have  refused,  often  we  have  risked 
our  souls,  have  snatched  them  from  Him  by  sin.  All  this  He  knew, 
and  thirsted  for  some  return  of  love,  if  only  a little  vinegar  upon  a 
sponge — some  recognition,  some  gratitude,  some  small  effort  to 


THE  FIFTH  WORD 


35 


be  better,  some  compassion  with  His  sufferings  for  us,  some  re- 
membrance of  Him  as  we  walk  along  the  road  of  life. 

Oh,  brethren,  be  not  any  more  even  harder-hearted  than  the  poor 
ignorant  soldier  who  gave  Him  a little  bitter  drink  upon  a sponge. 
Repent  of  your  hard  refusal  of  love  and  of  remembrance:  give  to 
our  dear  thirsting  Lord  the  love  He  longs  for;  be  no  longer,  never 
be  again,  the  cause  of  His  heart-burning  thirst  for  some  return  of 
love.  When  you  are  tempted  to  sin,  think  of  His  sad  word  “I 
thirst’’ ; I thirst  for  your  faithful  love,  now,  my  child,  in  the 
hour  of  trial  which  will  show  whether  you  are  faithful  and  true 
to  Me.  If  you  are  leading  a bad  or  an  indifferent  life,  think,  O 
my  brother,  think,  O my  sister,  of  the  heart-thirst  of  Jesus  for  your 
amendment,  for  your  happiness,  for  your  salvation.  Let  His 
most  bitter  thirst  nerve  you  and  strengthen  you  to  root  out  evil 
from  your  hearts  and  lives  and  give  Him  the  consolation  of 
knowing  that  for  you  His  thirst  was  not  in  vain,  but  that,  having 
suffered  for  you,  His  undying  love  shall  have  the  joy  and  satis- 
faction of  embracing  you  as  one  of  those  precious  souls  saved  by 
Him,  one  of  the  fruits  of  His  passion,  one  who  has  given  Him  to 
drink  the  draughts  of  pure  love  here  on  earth,  and  shall  be  filled 
with  the  wine  of  His  eternal  love  in  heaven. 


36 


LENTEN  SERMONS 


The  Sixth  Word 


“It  is  consummated.” — St.  John  xix,  30. 


SYNOPSIS — We  are  to  contemplate  the  death-bed  of  God-made-Man  * His 
sufferings  are  nearly  over;  there  remains  but  the  crowning  act — the 
willing  acceptance  of  death. 

Jesus  cries  out:  “ It  is  consummated .” 

His  sufferings  and  death  a means  to  an  end:  the  means  of  accom- 
plishing the  work  He  came  to  do — the  work  of  our  salvation. 

We  will  go  over  this  work  and  what  it  involves,  and  will  ask  three 
questions: 

I.  How  has  the  Death  on  the  Cross  saved  us? 

II.  What  was  it  about  the  death  of  Jesus  that  caused  our  salvation? 

III.  How  are  the  benefits  of  Christ’s  death  to  be  brought  across  the 
centuries  to  each  individual  soul? 

I.  How  did  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God-made-Man  save  us? 

To  answer  this  question  we  ask  another,  vis.: — How  did  the  human 
race  stand  in  relation  to  God  after  sin?  Man  found  himself  confronted 
by  an  offended  and  insulted  God;  adequate  recompense  for  the  insult 
was  impossible.  We  were  all  in  this  position.  Who  could  make  repa- 
ration? Only  God-made-Man  could  do  it. 

Christ  has  saved  us,  firstly,  by  making  adequate  satisfaction;  secondly, 
by  meriting  redemption;  thirdly,  by  meriting  the  restoration  of  the  gifts 
of  grace  and  perseverance. 

II.  What  was  it  about  the  Passion  and  Death  of  Christ  that  made  it 
the  cause  of  our  salvation? 

First,  the  willing  obedience  of  His  death;  but  we  must  remember 
that  this  was  the  obedience  of  God.  Importance  of  not  losing  sight  of 
the  true  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation. 

III.  How  are  the  benefits  of  the  Passion  brought  to  us?  By  the 
Church  which  Christ  “purchased  with  His  Own  Blood.” 

Conclusion.  Well  might  Jesus  say,  “It  is  consummated ” — the  work 
of  Salvation;  the  payment  of  the  price  of  Redemption ; satisfaction  to 
God;  the  winning  back  of  Grace;  provision  for  all  future  souls. 

Exhortation  to  devout  thankfulness  and  perseverance. 

We  are  to  watch  in  spirit  to-day,  my  dear  brethren  in  Jesus 
Christ,  the  most  solemn  and  the  most  impressive  death-bed  scene 
that  was  ever  enacted  upon  earth.  It  is  the  death-bed  of  God-made- 
Man;  of  Him  who  is  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life,  who  chooses, 
for  us  men  and  for  our  salvation,  to  subject  Himself  in  His  human 
nature  to  the  universal  law  of  mortality  that  lies  upon  His  creatures. 
It  is  the  death  of  Jesus  that  we  are  to  witness.  The  long  agony  is 
nearly  over;  those  lengthened  and  awful  sufferings  that  He  willed 
to  go  through,  drinking  to  the  dregs  the  bitter  cup  He  had  set  Him- 
self to  drain,  have  nearly  come  to  their  conclusion.  They  have  been 
enough  to  have  killed  Him  before  this,  but  death  may  not  lay 
its  cold  hand  upon  Him  till  He  wills  it.  And  He  wills  it  not  till  He 


THE  SIXTH  WORD 


37 


has  suffered  all,  till  He  has  endured  to  the  very  utmost,  till  He  has 
drunk  even  to  surfeiting  the  chalice  of  pain — so  that  He  might 
prove  His  love,  so  that  no  man  might  have  any  excuse  for  doubting 
that  immense  love  which  expressed  itself  and  proved  itself  in  that 
way  in  which  love  most  convincingly  and  most  unanswerably 
expresses  and  proves  itself — by  willing  suffering  on  behalf  of  the 
beloved. 

And  now  that  suffering  is  to  have  its  crown  put  upon  it;  it 
is  to  go  on  even  unto  death.  Jesus  Himself  had  said  to  the  dis- 
ciples, “Greater  love  than  this  no  man  hath,  that  a man  lay  down 
his  life  for  his  friends”  (St.  John,  xv,  13).  Now  He  is  about  to 
give  this  grand,  crowning,  and  final  proof  of  love  for  us:  for  us 
He  is  about  to  die.  The  crowning  act  of  death  is  to  set  the  seal 
upon  the  sufferings  that  have  gone  before.  They  were  the  painful 
road  by  which  He  went  to  death;  death  is  to  be  their  completion. 
It  is  the  supreme  consummation  of  all  His  sufferings  by  death 
that,  by  the  appointment  of  God,  is  to  save  the  world.  And  the 
death  of  Jesus  is  to  be  an  act  of  obedience  to  this  appointment  of 
God:  for  “He  humbled  Himself,  becoming  obedient  unto  death, 
even  to  the  death  of  the  cross”  (Phil,  ii,  8). 

And  the  moment  has  come.  All  else  is  finished.  There  remains 
but  this  final  act.  And  so,  as  St.  John  tells  us,  “Jesus  . . . said:  It 
is  consummated.  And  bowing  His  head,  He  gave  up  the  ghost” 
(St.  John  xix,  30).  We  learn  from  the  other  Evangelists  that  our 
Divine  Lord’s  last  breath  was  sent  forth  in  one  great  cry,  which  is 
the  last  word  from  the  Cross,  “Father,  into  Thy  hands  I commend 
my  spirit.”  But  both  this  last  word  and  the  sixth  word  which  we 
are  meditating  upon  to-day,  followed  quickly  one  upon  another, 
so  that  these  two  words,  the  sixth  and  the  seventh,  belong  to  the 
last  earthly  moments  of  our  Blessed  Saviour. 

“It  is  finished,”  or  “It  is  consummated.”  It  was  certainly  a cry  of 
satisfaction.  “I  have  a baptism,”  Jesus  had  said,  “wherewith  I am 
to  be  baptised : and  how  am  I straitened  until  it  be  accomplished  ?” 
(St.  Luke  xii,  50).  He  had  longed  for  its  accomplishment,  the 
accomplishment  of  His  baptism  of  blood  and  suffering;  now  it  was 
over,  all  had  been  rigorously  inflicted,  not  one  pang  had  been 
missed,  not  one  stroke  of  agony  witheld;  truly  He  could  say,  “It 
is  finished,”  as  He  bowed  His  head  in  death. 

But  all  these  sufferings  were  but  a means  to  an  end,  as  His  death 
itself  was  a means  to  an  end.  They  were  the  means  of  accomplish- 


38 


LENTEN  SERMONS 


ing  a work,  the  work  that  the  Word  came  from  His  throne  in  high 
Heaven  to  do.  And  in  His  dying  moment,  Jesus  could  truly  say  of 
His  appointed  work,  “It  is  finished,”  “it  is  consummated,”  that  is, 
it  is  complete. 

To-day,  as  we  stand  by  the  Cross  and  watch  for  one  last  breath 
of  our  dear  Master,  we  will  in  our  mind  go  over  that  work  which 
now  He  has  finished ; for,  my  dear  brethren,  it  concerns  each  single 
one  of  us  most  nearly,  more  nearly  than  anything  else  that  ever  has 
been  done  to  us,  or  for  us,  or  regarding  us  by  anyone  in  this 
world. 

What,  then,  is  the  work  that  was  accomplished  by  the  Passion 
and  death  of  Jesus?  It  may  be  summed  up  in  one  word:  it  is  the 
work  of  our  salvation.  But  when  we  have  said  that,  we  have  not 
said  all.  For  we  ask  how  the  Death  on  the  Cross  has  saved 
us:  we  may  ask  what  was  it  about  the  death  of  Jesus  that  made  it 
the  cause  of  our  salvation : we  may  ask  also  how  the  benefit  of  the 
Passion  and  Death  of  Christ  is  to  be  brought  across  the  centuries 
that  intervene,  from  Calvary  to  each  individual  soul. 

First  then,  how  did  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God-made-Man 
save  us? 

To  answer  this  question  we  will  first  ask  another,  and  it  is  this: 
How  did  the  human  race  stand  in  relation  to  God  after  sin?  And 
we  must  remember,  as  we  inquire  into  this,  that  but  for  the 
salvation  wrought  by  Christ  upon  the  Cross,  we  should  every  one 
of  us  be  in  the  position  in  which  sin  placed  the  whole  human  race. 

First,  then,  after  sin  man  found  himself  confronted  by  an  offended 
and  insulted  God.  Man,  by  sin,  commits  an  act  in  itself  and  so 
far  as  the  sinner’s  own  powers  go,  irreparable.  Offense,  injury,  and 
insult  are  the  greater  according  to  the  dignity  and  rank  of  the  one 
who  is  offended.  By  sin  man,  a worm  of  earth,  has  insulted  the 
infinite  Majesty  of  the  Almighty  God.  There  is  the  measure  of  sin! 
Again,  if  we  have  offended  anyone,  recompense  is  due,  and  that 
recompense  or  satisfaction  must  be  adequate.  This  means  that  the 
offender  must  be  in  a position  to  offer  something  that  will  please 
the  offended  person  at  least  as  much  as  the  offence  displeased 
him.  Now  such  a satisfaction  man  could  never  offer  to  God.  It 
is  impossible  for  a man,  or  all  men  together,  to  do  anything  that 
will  please  God  as  much  as  sin  displeases  Him.  The  extreme 
hatred  of  God  for  sin,  which  is  the  pole  of  absolute  opposition, 
of  utter  contrast  with  and  difference  from  the  Divine  Sanctity, 


THE  SIXTH  WORD 


39 


is  immeasureable  by  human  thought,  and  inexpressible  in  human 
words.  Not  even  the  eternal  fire  of  hell  can  adequately  por- 
tray the  just  displeasure  that  God,  by  His  very  nature,  must  have 
for  sin.  And  we  have  all  sinned ; we  have  all  done  this  dread  thing, 
and  come  under  the  Divine  wrath  and  anger.  Who  could  make 
adequate  atonement?  Who  could  satisfy  for  the  offence?  None 
but  God-made-Man.  By  the  Cross  He  has  done  it,  making  satisfac- 
tion for  us,  and,  as  St.  Paul  says,  “blotting  out  the  handwriting  of 
the  decree  that  was  against  us,  which  was  contrary  to  us.  And  He 
hath  taken  the  same  out  of  the  way,  fastening  it  to  the  Cross” 
(Coloss,  ii,  14). 

If,  then,  we  ask  how  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Jesus  have  saved 
us,  the  answer  is,  by  making  adequate  satisfaction  to  the  offended 
Majesty  of  God  for  the  offence  of  sin.  The  willing  obedience  of 
Jesus  in  His  Passion,  His  willing  suffering,  the  shedding  of  His 
Precious  Blood,  His  oblation  of  Himself,  His  acceptance  of  death  in 
the  spirit  of  obedience,  constituted  an  act  of  religion,  of  worship  of 
God,  of  sacrifice,  that  was  more  pleasing  to  the  Divine  Majesty,  on 
account  of  the  infinite  dignity  of  the  Person  who  performed  it, 
than  sin  was  displeasing  to  that  same  Majesty  of  God. 

Again,  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Jesus  merited  our  Redemption. 
By  a just  ordinance  of  God,  man  by  yielding  to  the  devil  was 
brought  into  servitude  and  slavery  to  the  evil  one.  By  His 
suffering  and  death  Christ  our  Lord  paid  the  price  of  our  ransom 
from  this  slavery — a dreadful  slavery  that  put  us  under  the  devil’s 
power  in  this  world,  and  condemned  us  to  be  his  for  eternity.  This 
price  Jesus  has  paid,  not  indeed  to  Satan,  who  has  no  strict  rights 
over  us,  but  to  God,  by  whose  just  decree  sinners  are  abandoned  to 
the  greatest  enemy  of  God  and  men.  By  the  shedding  of  the 
Precious  Blood  of  Christ,  we  are  restored  to  the  glorious  liberty 
as  the  sons  of  God,  to  the  heirship  of  Heaven,  to  the  sonship  of 
our  Heavenly  Father. 

Lastly,  by  His  Passion  our  Divine  Lord  merited  for  us  the 
restoration  of  all  those  gifts  of  Divine  grace  by  which  we  are 
first  placed  upon  the  way  of  salvation  by  being  raised  to  the 
supernatural  state  of  grace  and  charity,  and  secondly,  kept  in 
that  state  and  enabled  to  persevere  to  the  end  and  to  be  saved. 
It  is  because  of  the  merit  of  His  most  precious  death  that  Jesus 
is  of  right  the  supreme  source  of  grace  to  use:  it  is  because  of 
that  same  merit  that  there  flows  from  Him,  as  from  a fountain. 


40 


LENTEN  SERMONS 


that  grace  which  He  applies  to  our  souls  through  the  agency  of 
His  Church,  His  ministers,  His  Sacraments  and  the  Holy  Sacrifice 
of  the  Mass. 

We  will  ask  now  our  second  question,  what  was  it  about  the  death 
of  Jesus  that  made  it  the  effective  cause  of  our  salvation?  This 
question  has  already  in  part  been  answered  by  what  I have  said.  It 
was  the  willing  obedience  with  which  Christ  suffered  that  constituted 
the  great  value  of  His  satisfaction  and  merit  in  God’s  sight.  It  was 
through  His  obedience  that  our  disobedience  was  atoned  for,  the 
insult  of  that  disobedience  made  up  for,  the  offended  Majesty  of 
God  appeased.  And  the  obedient  death  of  Christ  was  sufficient 
to  do  this  because  it  was  the  act,  the  obedience,  the  death,  not  merely 
of  a man,  but  of  a Divine  Person.  It  is  of  the  greatest  importance 
that  we  should  never  lose  sight  of  this  great  Catholic  truth,  that  He 
who  died  for  us  upon  the  Cross  was  true  God,  a Divine  Person, 
the  Second  Person  of  the  Blessed  Trinity.  To  forget  this,  to 
become  unsound,  as  so  many  outside  the  Catholic  Church  are 
unsound  in  these  days,  upon  the  great  truth  of  the  Incarnation,  the 
fact  that  Jesus  Christ,  having  two  natures,  the  nature  of  God  and 
the  nature  of  man,  is  yet  one  Person  only,  and  that  Person  the 
Person  of  God  the  Son  Himself — to  lose  sight  of  this,  or  to  say 
otherwise,  is  to  take  away  the  value  of  the  Passion.  If  He  who 
died  for  us  upon  the  Cross  had  not  been  God;  if  His  every  act 
had  not  been  the  act  of  a Divine  Person,  using  His  human  nature 
as  an  instrument  of  His  Divinity  in  which  and  by  which  to  suffer 
and  to  die,  we  should  not  have  been  saved,  the  price  of  Redemption 
would  not  have  been  paid,  the  infinite  value  of  every  act  of  Jesus 
would  not  have  existed. 

Finally,  my  dear  brethren,  we  will  answer  the  question  “how  are 
the  benefits  of  the  Passion  and  Death  of  Christ  to  be  brought  across 
the  centuries  to  every  soul  to  the  end  of  time?”  St.  Paul  answered 
this  question  when  he  said  to  the  clergy  of  Ephesus:  “Take  heed 
to  yourselves,  and  to  the  whole  flock,  wherein  the  Holy  Ghost  hath 
placed  you  bishops,  to  rule  the  Church  of  God,  which  He  hath 
purchased  with  His  own  Blood”  (Acts  xx,  28).  This  was  the 
completion  of  Christ’s  work  of  suffering — the  birth,  as  it  were  from 
His  own  wounded  side — even  as  Eve  our  first  mother  came  from 
the  side  of  Adam — of  our  true  mother  the  Holy  Catholic  Church, 
the  bride  of  Jesus.  In  that  Holy  Church,  called  also  by  St.  Paul 
again  and  again  the  Body  of  Christ,  Our  Blessed  Saviour  lives 


THE  SIXTH  WORD . 


4i 


and  moves  and  walks  still  by  His  own  indwelling  Spirit  and  by 
His  sacramental  Presence.  She  is  red  with  His  Precious  Blood, 
Her  robe  of  glory:  Her  Sacraments  are  holy  vessels  by  which  that 
Blood  is  applied  to  our  souls,  and  its  merits  given  for  our  salvation. 
Well  might  Jesus  say  “it  is  finished,”  “it  is  consummated,”  “all  is 
completed.”  The  work  of  salvation  was  accomplished,  the  price 
was  paid,  satisfaction  was  made  to  God,  the  graces  needed  by  all 
men  were  won,  nothing  was  left  undone  that  should  be  necessary 
to  carry  on  the  work  of  salvation  even  to  the  end  of  the  world. 

How  should  we  devoutly  thank  God  every  day  for  this  great 
accomplishment  summed  up  in  those  words  of  hope  for  every  one 
of  us,  “it  is  consummated” ! For  then  Jesus  spoke  of  you  and 
me,  of  your  salvation  and  mine.  “The  salvation  of  this  one  and 
that  is  accomplished — of  this  one  and  that  one  whom  I love  as 
if  there  were  no  other  to  love,  for  whom  I have  done  all  this  as 
truly  as  if  there  were  no  other  to  do  it  for.”  “He  loved  me” 
says  St.  Paul,  “and  delivered  Himself  for  me”  (Gal.  ii,  20),  and 
every  one  of  us  can  truly  say  the  same. 

May  our  most  merciful  and  loving  Jesus  grant,  and  may  the 
prayers  of  His  dear  Mother  Mary  obtain,  that  when  we  come  to 
die  we  too  may  be  able  to  say  “it  is  consummated,”  the  work  of  my 
salvation  is  accomplished,  I have  co-operated  with  what  Christ  my 
Saviour  has  done  for  me,  I have  not  lost  the  fruits  of  His  great 
salvation  by  my  own  fault.  I have  persevered  by  His  merciful  help 
and  grace,  and  I know  that  He  will  give  to  me  the  crown  of  ever- 
lasting glory! 


42 


LENTEN  SERMONS 


The  Seventh  Word 


“Father,  into  Thy  hands  I commend  my  spirit.” — St.  Luke  xxiii,  46. 


SYNOPSIS. — Prom  the  pulpit  of  the  Cross  our  Lord  will  say  one  more 
word,  a word  that  will  teach  us  how  to  die.  St.  Luke  tells  us  that 
“ crying  with  a loud  voice,”  He  said:  “Father,  into  Thy  hands  I commend 
my  spirit .”  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  mention  only  the  loud  cry; 
St.  John  alone  mentions  the  bowing  of  His  head.  Explanation  of  this. 

The  loud  cry  of  Jesus  was  one  of  the  miracles  of  His  death.  The 
opinion  of  St.  Thomas.  Certainly  this  last  word  is  proof  that  His  giving 
up  the  ghost — the  act  of  dying — was,  like  all  His  sufferings,  a voluntary 
act.  So,  too,  with  the  bowing  of  His  head.  Isaias.  Words  from 
Bishop  Bellord. 

The  marvellous  change  in  the  way  of  meeting  death  introduced  amongst 
men  by  this  word  and  example  of  Jesus.  Hitherto  death  almost  universally 
was  met  with  horror  and  dismay:  not  only  with  physical  shrinking,  bul 
with  mental  rebellion;  when  not  with  brutalised  indifference.  There 
was  no  idea  of  meeting  death  with  a tranquil  mind,  much  less  with  joy. 
The  death  of  the  Christian  following  the  example  of  the  death  of 
Christ.  Pray  that  your  death  may  be  tranquil  and  happy,  and  that  you 
may  be  able  trustfully  to  commend  your  soul  to  God.  Remember  that 
this  needs  forming  the  habit  in  life  and  so  living  that  trust  may  not  be 
presumption. 

Another  effect  of  the  death  of  Christ  has  been  the  willing  sacrifice 
of  life,  for  the  faith,  or  for  others. 

We  can  learn  also  from  this  last  word  a lesson  of  Faith.  Jesus 
seemed  a failure ; it  seemed  as  if  He  were  abandoned  by  God  and  man. 
Yet  He  says  confidently  and  loudly  “Father!”  With  His  last  breath 
He  proclaims  once  more  His  Divine  Sonship.  Conversion  by  this  of 
the  Centurion  and  others.  Oh,  blessed  death  of  Jesus!  Oh,  blessed 
Word  of  Jesus!  Praise  and  thank  Him.  May  His  example  convert 
our  hearts. 

One  more  lesson.  According  to  the  Fathers  Christ,  in  this  last 
Word,  commended  the  Church  and  the  members  of  the  Church  to  His 
Father.  A consoling  thought  for  the  hour  of  death. 

We  have  gone  together  over  the  Seven  Words.  Pray  that  the  remem- 
brance of  their  lessons  may  abide  with  us  in  life  and  death. 

We  are  to  meditate  to-day,  dear  brethren  in  Jesus  Christ,  upon 
the  last  word  of  Our  Divine  Saviour  spoken  from  the  Cross.  He 
has  uttered  that  saying  of  pregnant  meaning  that  we  considered  in 
my  last  discourse.  It  is  consummated,  but  from  the  pulpit  of  the 
Cross  upon  which  He  is  lifted  up  to  draw  all  men  unto  Himself 
He  will  yet  say  one  more  Word  for  our  instruction  and  for  our 
consolation,  a word  that  will  teach  us  how  to  die,  even  as  His 
whole  life  and  the  other  words  Fie  spoke  both  from  the  Cross  and 
in  all  His  preaching  teach  us  how  to  live. 

“And  Jesus,”  writes  the  Evangelist  St.  Luke,  “crying  with  a 


THE  SEVENTH  WORD 


43 


loud  voice,  said:  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I commend  my  spirit — 
and  saying  this,  He  gave  up  the  ghost.”  -(St.  Luke  xxiii,  46.)  St. 
Matthew  and  St.  Mark  mention  only  the  “great  cry”  which  our 
Blessed  Lord  gave  forth.  “And  Jesus,”  writes  St.  Matthew,  “again 
crying  with  a loud  voice,  gave  up  the  ghost”  (St.  Matt,  xxvii,  15). 
And  St.  Mark  also  says:  “Jesus,  having  cried  out  with  a loud 
voice,  gave  up  the  ghost”  (St.  Mark  xv,  37).  St.  John,  the  beloved 
disciple,  adds  another  precious  detail  to  the  inspired  record  of  this 
last  scene,  for  he  tells  us  that  Jesus  “bowing  His  head,  gave  up  the 
ghost”  (St.  John  xix,  30).  Most  of  the  disciples,  at  the  moment 
of  the  death  of  Jesus,  were  standing  afar  off.  St.  Luke,  who  him- 
self tells  us  in  the  introduction  to  his  Gospel  that  he  had  made 
diligent  inquiries  from  eyewitnesses  of  the  life  of  our  Divine  Lord, 
and  “diligently  attained  to  all  things  from  the  beginning”  (St.  Luke 
i,  3),  doubtless  obtained  his  information  concerning  the  last  utter- 
ance of  the  Saviour  from  one  who  stood  close  at  hand,  probably 
from  the  lips  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  herself.  St.  John,  too,  was 
close  to  the  Cross,  and  saw  that  Jesus  had  bowed  His  head  and 
was  dead.  The  others  heard  only  the  loud  cry,  but  not  the  words 
uttered.  Nevertheless,  the  Holy  Ghost  willed  not  that  they  should 
be  lost  to  us,  so  precious  are  they,  and  so  full  of  teaching  to  help 
to  console  and  strengthen  us  in  that  hour  when  we  too  shall  have 
to  render  our  souls  to  God  Who  gave  them. 

This  loud  cry  of  Jesus  was  in  itself  a miracle.  It  was  proof  that 
Jesus  yielded  up  His  soul  when  He  willed,  and  not  before.  His 
Divinity,  acting  upon  His  sacred  Humanity,  either  preserved  His 
bodily  strength  to  the  end  in  spite  of  all  the  sufferings  He  had 
endured — not  indeed  lessening  those  sufferings,  nor  diminishing 
the  agonizing  feeling  of  oncoming  death,  but  rather  giving  to 
Jesus  a fuller  capacity  of  suffering;  or  else,  granting  as  some  think 
to  be  the  case,  that  He  was  reduced  to  the  last  extremity  of  bodily 
exhaustion,  the  Divinity  gave  Him  a momentary  access  of  strength 
in  that  last  moment.  “In  order  to  show,”  says  St.  Thomas,  “that 
His  soul  was  not  wrested  from  Him  by  the  violence  of  His  Pas- 
sion, Christ  preserved  His  bodily  nature  in  its  full  strength,  so  that 
in  the  last  extremity  He  might  cry  out  with  a loud  voice:  a fact 
that  must  be  reckoned  among  the  miracles  of  His  death.”  Which- 
ever of  these  opinions  may  be  the  truth,  this  last  loud  cry  of  Jesus 
at  the  very  instant  of  death  is  proof  that,  as  St.  Augustine  says, 
He  gave  up  His  soul,  not,  as  others,  unwillingly,  but  “because  He 


44 


LENTEN  SERMONS 


willed,  when  He  willed,  and  how  He  willed.”  The  same  truth  is 
taught  by  the  words  of  the  Evangelists  who  say  “He  gave  up  the 
ghost.”  To  the  very  end  all  was  voluntary,  even  the  act  of  dying 
itself  was  a voluntary  act  of  obedience.  Even,  according  to  the 
fathers  of  the  Church,  the  act  of  bowing  His  sacred  Head  was  a 
voluntary  act;  His  Head  did  not  fall  because  He  was  dead,  but, 
as  St.  John  says,  “bowing  His  Head,  He  gave  up  the  ghost.”  Thus 
St.  Chrysostom  writes,  “He  did  now  bow  His  Head  because  He 
was  dead,  but  when  He  had  bowed  His  Head,  then  He  died,  by 
all  which  the  Evangelist  signifies  that  Christ  was  the  Lord  of  all.” 

“He  was  offered,”  wrote  Isaias  in  prophecy,  “because  it  was 
His  own  will  (Isaias  liii,  7).  He  Himself  had  said,  “I  lay  down 
my  life  that  I may  take  it  again.  No  man  taketh  it  away  from 
me ; but  I lay  it  down  of  myself : and  I have  power  to  take  it  up 
again”  (St.  John  x,  17,  18). 

Hence,  as  says  a modern  writer  (the  late  Bishop  Bellord,  “Med- 
itations on  Christian  Dogma,”  Vol.  I,  Medit.  45)  it  is  to  be  con- 
cluded that  the  separation  of  Christ’s  soul  from  His  body  “was 
not  the  result  of  the  physical  violence  He  endured,  but  of  His  own 
direct  volition.  This  view  accords  with  Christ’s  supremacy  as  Lord 
of  life  and  death,  His  power  as  God,  and  the  fulness  of  deliberate 
choice  with  which  He  died  for  us.  . . . He  did  not  die  till  He  had 
Himself  pronounced  the  decree  “Father,  into  Thy  hands  I com- 
mend my  spirit.”  Then  he  allowed  His  bodily  and  mental  suffer- 
ings to  take  effect ; He  suspended  the  divine  influx  which  made  Him 
immortal;  He  allowed  death  to  approach,  as  He  had  allowed  the 
temple-guards  to  seize  Him  in  the  garden.” 

We  will  stay  now  a few  moments,  my  dear  brethren,  to  con- 
sider the  marvellous  change  in  the  way  of  meeting  death  which 
this  example  of  our  Lord’s  voluntary  yielding  up  of  His  spirit  has 
introduced  into  the  world.  Before  Jesus  died  upon  the  Cross  death 
was  almost  universally  looked  upon  with  horror  and  dismay.  When 
a man  came  to  die,  as  a general  rule,  he  met  death  not  only  with  a 
physical  shrinking,  but  with  unwillingness  and  mental  rebellion 
against  the  common  lot.  Some,  indeed,  either  because  their  pro- 
fession familiarized  them  with  death,  or  because  life  was  a misery, 
met  its  approach  with  a brutalized  dumb  indifference.  But  the  idea 
of  willing  death,  of  a peaceful  and  happy  death,  of  meeting  death 
with  a tranquil  and  willing  mind  was  a thing  scarce  heard  of ; while 
to  meet  death  with  joy  and  eagerness  was  a thing  to  wonder  at. 


THE  SEVENTH  WORD 


45 


The  death  of  Jesus  taught  His  followers  to  meet  death  in  this  way, 
and  from  that  time  forward  millions  of  Christian  death-beds  have 
exemplified  the  lesson  of  the  Master.  Death,  to  the  true  Christian, 
is  the  gate  of  life.  With  the  great  Apostle  he  can  cry  out  triumph- 
antly, “O  death,  where  is  thy  victory?  O death,  where  is  thy 
sting?”  (I.  Cor.  xv,  55.)  Death  to  him  is  the  trustful  relinquish- 
ing of  his  soul  into  the  hands  of  a good  and  loving  Father,  and 
thousands  upon  thousands  have  died  with  the  words  of  Jesus  upon 
their  lips,  “Father,  into  Thy  hands  I commend  my  spirit.” 

Dear  brethren,  pray  now  to  God  that  your  death  may  be  happy, 
tranquil,  peaceful;  that  from  your  heart  you  may  be  able,  at  that 
dread  moment,  to  commend  your  souls  lovingly  and  trustfully  into 
the  hands  of  God.  But  remember  that  if  you  would  do  that  when 
you  come  to  die,  you  must  form  the  habit  now  of  contemplating 
that  last  scene  of  your  earthly  life,  and  of  trusting  God  now  and 
of  so  living  in  His  holy  sight  that  your  trust  may  not  be  a presump- 
tion. He  who  wishes  to  die  well  must  strive  to  live  well.  The 
man  who  passes  his  life  in  indifference,  in  forgetfulness  of  God 
and  in  sin  cannot  expect  to  be  able  to  die  in  peace  with  Christ’s 
words  upon  his  lips. 

Miracles  of  grace,  death-bed  conversions  do,  indeed,  happen 
sometimes;  but  we  have  no  right  to  presume  upon  them.  It  is 
highly  dangerous  to  do  so;  and,  moreover,  it  is  the  height  of 
meanness  towards  our  good  God  to  put  off  our  repentance  and 
amendment  to  the  last,  offering  the  shreds  and  tatters  of  a wasted 
life  to  Him  who  gave  all  His  life,  all  His  toils  and  sufferings  for 
us,  and  for  us  endured  the  pangs  of  death. 

Another  effect  in  the  world  of  the  great  example  of  Christ’s 
death  has  been  the  willing  sacrifice  of  their  lives  by  thousands  of 
Christians  who  have  died  either  as  martyrs  for  the  faith  or  as 
martyrs  of  charity,  giving  their  lives  for  their  brethren.  Think 
of  all  the  martyrs,  think  of  heroic  missionaries,  think  of  priests 
and  nuns  who  have  gone  fearlessly  into  the  midst  of  plague  and 
pestilence  and  lost  their  lives  in  consequence;  think  of  those  holy 
men  and  women  in  every  age  who  have  worn  themselves  out  for 
the  love  of  Jesus  and  of  the  souls  for  whom  Jesus  died.  They  drew 
their  strength  in  meeting  death  from  the  loving  contemplation  of 
the  death  of  Jesus  on  the  Cross. 

But  let  us  now  go  back  to  the  thought  of  our  dear  Saviour  utter- 
ing that  loud  last  cry.  There  is  another  lesson  that  we  can  learn — 


46 


LENTEN  SERMONS 


a lesson  of  faith.  It  seemed  at  that  moment  as  if  the  life  of  Jesus 
was  ending  in  utter  failure.  He  seemed  abandoned  by  God  and 
man  alike.  He  Himself  had  cried  out  with  exceeding  bitterness  in 
mysterious  and  awful  desolation,  “My  God,  My  God,  why  hast 
Thou  forsaken  Me?”  But  now,  with  a grand  unconquerable  con- 
fidence, He  turns  to  His  Eternal  Father  and  cries,  “Father,  into 
Thy  hands  I commend  my  spirit.”  He  was  using,  and  purposely 
using,  words  from  the  Old  Testament,  words  of  the  sweet  singer 
of  Israel  from  the  30th  Psalm.  He  would  show  to  those  around 
that,  in  spite  of  all  appearance,  He  truly  was  the  Son  of  God,  the 
Son  of  that  God  who  had  chosen  the  Jewish  people  out  of  the 
nations  of  the  earth  to  be  the  depositaries  of  His  revelation  and 
the  nation  in  which  the  Redeemer  should  be  born.  So  He  proclaims 
Himself  with  His  very  last  breath  to  be  what  He  had  always 
claimed  to  be,  the  true  Son  of  the  living  God.  And  this  cry  of 
triumphant  confidence,  this  proclamation  of  the  truth  of  His  Divine 
Sonship  at  once  converted  the  centurion  who  was  in  command 
of  the  Roman  guard  around  the  Cross.  “Now  the  centurion,” 
writes  St.  Luke,  “seeing  what  was  done,  glorified  God,  saying: 
Indeed  this  was  a just  man”  (St.  Luke  xxiii,  47).  Others,  too, 
were  brought  to  believe  in  Him;  for,  says  St.  Matthew,  “the  cen- 
turion and  they  that  were  with  him  watching  Jesus  . . . were  sore 
afraid,  saying:  Indeed  this  was  the  Son  of  God”  (St.  Matt,  xxvii, 
54)  ; and  St.  Luke  tells  us  how  all  the  multitude  of  them  that  were 
come  together  to  that  sight  and  saw  the  things  that  were  done, 
returned  striking  their  breasts. 

Oh  most  blessed  death  of  Jesus,  that  has  taken  away  death’s 
sting  for  us  and  robbed  the  grave  of  its  grim  victory ! Oh  blessed 
death  that  has  opened  the  way  to  eternal  life,  has  thrown  the 
effulgence  of  heavenly  light  around  the  dying  bed.  Oh  blessed 
word  of  Jesus,  that  strengthens  our  hearts  and  fills  them  with 
serene  and  joyful  confidence  even  at  the  terrible  moment  of  death. 
Praise  Jesus,  my  dearest  brethren,  that  He  has  left  us  this  grand 
word  of  hope  and  strength  and  surest  trust  to  gladden  our  depart- 
ing from  this  world.  Oh  may  this  word  deepen  our  faith  in  Him, 
in  His  Divinity,  His  Eternal  Sonship:  may  it  convert  our  hearts 
from  worldliness  and  carelessness  and  sin,  as  it  converted  the  cen- 
turion and  those  with  him. 

Oh  Jesus,  Eternal  Son  of  God,  true  God  of  true  God,  grant  that 
this  Thy  dying  word  may  be  upon  our  dying  lips  and  bring  us  to 
Thyself 


THE  SEVENTH  WORD 


4 7 


One  more  lesson,  my  dear  brethren,  from  this  last  word  from 
the  Cross.  The  Fathers  tell  us  that  when  Jesus  commended  His 
spirit  to  the  Father,  He  was  also  commending  to  God  His  whole 
Church,  and  the  souls  of  all  who  should  be  one  with  Him  in  the 
unity  of  His  mystical  Body.  St.  Athanasius  writes : “When 
He  says,  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I commend  my  spirit,  by  that 
word  He  commits  to  the  keeping  of  His  Father  all  men  who 
through  Him  and  in  Him  are  to  be  brought  to  the  life  of  grace; 
for  we  are  members  of  Him  according  to  the  words  of  the  Apostle 
“you  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus”  (Gal.  iii,  28).  So  then,  when 
we  come  to  die,  this  word  of  Jesus,  uttered  on  our  behalf  as  well 
as  His  own,  will  plead  for  us  with  God,  and  will  present  us  before 
the  Throne  of  our  Maker  with  a recommendation  to  mercy,  so 
strong  a recommendation  that  nothing  but  our  own  pertinacious 
refusal  of  grace  up  to  the  last  can  make  that  recommendation  fail. 

We  have  gone  now  together,  my  dear  brethren,  over  the  seven 
words  of  Jesus  from  the  Cross.  May  God  grant,  and  may  His  own 
Blessed  Mother,  who  suffered  so  great  a martyrdom  at  the  foot  of 
that  Cross,  pray  for  us,  that  the  remembrance  of  these  words  and 
of  their  holy  lessons  may  never  depart  from  our  minds.  May  they 
be  with  us  in  life,  on  our  lips  and  in  our  hearts;  may  we  practice 
faithfully  what  we  have  learnt  from  them,  and  so  shall  a pious 
and  happy  death  crown  our  labors  and  our  souls  shall  be  received 
into  our  eternal  heavenly  home  to  be  with  God  for  ever,  to  praise 
eternally  Him  who  suffered  such  things  for  us,  to  thank  Him 
endlessly  with  inexhaustible  love  for  that  great  love  which  He  has 
shown  to  us,  that  love  by  which,  “when  we  were  enemies,  we  were 
reconciled  to  God,”  through  which  also  “where  sin  abounded,  grace 
did  more  abound,  that  as  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  so  also  grace 
might  reign  by  justice  unto  life  everlasting,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord.”  (Rom.  v,  10,  20,  21.) 


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